No shradh for Sunil Gangopadhyay, says family

KOLKATA: Sunil Gangopadhyay's son Souvik made it clear on Friday that there won't be any Shradh ceremony for the author.
"My father never believed in this. In fact, such events were never encouraged in our family. What we plan to do instead is organize a remembrance meeting that will be attended by all who were close to my father. We are fixing the location for this meeting that may be held sometime next week," he said.
Souvik - a well established IT professional in Boston - was ready to share some of his childhood memories of his father with TOI on Friday. Being the son of a literary genius like Sunil Gangopadhyay meant that family life was slightly different from other children he went to school with.
"School was no different, but for me, family life was not the same. We didn't get to go out together as other families do. There would always be a lot of people at home, who would be talking to my father. Many of them would be my father's friends while others would come to invite him to various functions. I left home even before completing high school but things in the family remained the same. Even when my father visited me in the US, there would be several visitors. He had many friends in the US but these visitors were different. They would want to take him to different programmes like book release ceremonies. I know of an author who got a book released at four different places and wanted my father to be present everywhere. Book release ceremonies are in great fashion nowadays, it seems," Souvik said.
Initially, Gangopadhyay would spend a couple of months every year with Souvik in the US. The period of stay went up after Souvik's son was born in 2006. "The attachment between my parents and my son went up as time progressed. All this happened so suddenly that it wasn't possible for me to bring my family. I will return to Boston with my mother. I can't say how long she will remain there. That is up to her. I would want her to get over the shock before returning to India though," he said.
The author's attachment with his son became clear from a diary item that he got published recently. In it, Gangopadhyay has mentioned how Swati coped with the separation from son Puplu (Souvik). Dhananjay Boyra, who was the author's personal secretary till his death on Tuesday, also recounted how he had first witnessed grief on Gangopadhyay's face for the first time as Souvik was leaving for Boston.
"I had never seen Dada sad or angry. However, on the day Puplu left for the US, things were different. They had also insisted that I accompany them to the airport as I and Puplu had grown up together. When he finally entered the security zone, I could notice grief on the faces of Dada and Boudi," Boyra said.