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!