LETTER 1: 1st August, 2016
Departure

Dear Ma,

Over the last two days more than 200 people came to express their respect to you, not to mention the outpouring of emotions on Facebook! We had organized a memorial gongyo for you at home on Saturday and people shared the deep impact you had left on their lives. Sunday morning we floated away the last of your remains in the Ganges praying for a peaceful rebirth and new life as Subho and I chanted three daimoku.

Mia wanted us to celebrate your life and hence, we had a memorial meeting for you at Ankur yesterday...the same place where Chandreyee and I had danced, where Mia was introduced and Subho and Madhavi got married! We all came well dressed in vibrant colors as we know you would not have enjoyed a gathering of people dressed in white. 

The entire Dasgupta family was present including Minku, Bipasha, Ashmani, Sharan, Shoma and Titi. So were endless friends and relatives. Mini mashi, Supriya aunty, Tanu mashi, Shoma Boudi, Gautam Neogi, Titkudi and Bapi shared many memories from their interactions with you, your life and your courage! Mashi, Ruchidi, Chirantan, Raj and Rup and Mia sang some of your favorite Rabindrasangeet. You would have been especially proud of Mia.

The place was adorned with bright colored roses and a poster made specially by Mia and Ashmani along with special cards made by Devank, Jahnavi and Geetanjali. We drew solace from the way you lived as in death too, you set an example. We treated everyone to a box of your favorite food from Hindustan Sweets and your ever loved Maaza which was lovingly served by the kids to all and sundry.

Anjali aunty also did a hom for you and Spark yesterday at her place! We even went to her house this morning to have your favorite idlis and masala chai!

But the undeniable truth we are all grappling with is that you were not there! In spirit probably you were happy and omnipresent but in physical form you were amiss! It was heartbreaking to see you left behind inside a photo frame, still radiantly smiling! Bapi wore the new lungi that you had gotten done and many of us were in vibrant green! Wish you were there to witness the tears, the smiles, the joy, the sorrow and above all the gratitude people carried in their hearts for having known you!

Life will move on...it has to! These memories however, will never fade. You would have wanted to see them and hence, the photos!

No words are enough to express what we all learnt from you and sometimes learnt not to do seeing you! But that also we are no longer sure of! In the end, I recited two poems of yours! It was hard to do as you were no longer there!

We have fought and made up so many times before Ma. But this time you are not there around for me to say sorry or love you! But I know, somewhere in the macrocosm our thoughts and emotions will pierce through and deliver them straight to you, without the reassurance of the blue tick on our numerous Whatsapp messages! May you find solace and be born back near Nichiren's Daishonins Buddhism, which was your greatest gift to so many of us! May we meet again in our next lives and be blessed to be loved by you!

We are grieving but in the same breath rejoicing and celebrating everything you symbolized! We love you Ma and you will never be forgotten!

An introduction

This blog is dedicated to late Mrs. Manju Das Gupta, who passed away on the early morning of 28th July, 2016.

She had turned 79 on 4th July, earlier that month and it was my good fortune as her younger son to have been present in Kolkata to celebrate the birthday with joy and family. She left behind on this mortal earth, the following:

• Her husband and partner of more than 54 years of companionship, Surajit Das Gupta
• Her older son, Subhorup Das Gupta, his wife Madhavi Padma, and their 2 year old son, Devank
• Her younger son, me, Abhimanyu Das Gupta, also widely known as Tipu, my wife, Chandreyee Das Gupta (Mim), our 9 year old daughter Mihika and our 4 year old son (canine), Neo
• Her sister, her sister-in-law, her neices, nephews, and their spouses and children
• Many other family members....distant and not so distant, with whom she always maintained contact
• Her huge family from the Bharat Soka Gakkai, as she was a follower of Nichiren's Buddhism since 1999 and had made friends and fellow comrades in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai
• Her still engaged ex colleagues from Loreto College, where she worked for more than 24 years, Oriflame network, where she rose and shone over more than a decade as a successful businesswoman and more recently her WellScience network of friends and colleagues
• Her friends....a list that is too long to enumerate but a unique one as it had anybody and everybody she met, big or small, rich or poor, and whose lives she touched
• And a whole world of friends on Facebook, where she reigned as a social butterfly over the last 5 years or so, making new friends whom she had only met online and everybody who remember her for her vibrant spirit and active engagement in encouraging and empowering one and all!

Our last selfie!

However, this blog is probably most about the special relationship she and I shared...even though she shared special bonds with almost every one she met and each person will remember and cherish the relationship they built with her.

It has been more than 6 months since she left us and I am sure many of us on the list above, remember her every single day, every single breath! There are endless thoughts and memories that rush forth when I think of our 40 year old relationship...the exact age she was when she gave birth to me. But this is going to be a documentary on the numerous letters I have been writing to her since she left for her heavenly abode. Through the letters, I know she is alive in my heart and more importantly I want her to know that we remember her every day. So, this blog will recount the letters in sequence, from the very first one I wrote to her within a day of her passing and I hope, the process not only becomes cathartic in helping me let go of the pain instead of her memory that time tries to force clean from my head. They say time heals, I say time makes you forget...and that is why I decided to put it permanently in the digital world...a domain we probably don't understand fully in its design and I hope through my sharing...it will reach out to the nano particles of her soul through the highways of the universe...and through the bits and bytes of love and fondness, admiration and respect, and countless memories...she will live on.

Lest we forget!