GOODBYE, DEEPDADA !

GOODBYE, DEEPDADA !

Deepdada, you were the most brilliant cousin among all. Your documentary films which had won you international film festival awards stood you well in the illustrious lineage you belonged to. Beginning with your great grandfather, the great nationalist and freedom fighter Bipin Chandra Pal and running through your grandfather Niranjan Pal whose authorship and scriptwriting for Bombay movies made him eminently distinguished, to your father Colin Pal who shone in the world of film publicity and film journalism, to your own contribution behind the camera, both as cameraman and film director, you had kept up the long tradition of creative excellence in your family.

My associations with you have been from my childhood when you taught me how to ride the bicycle in Goregaon, Bombay, when I was barely five. You gave me as gift that green-painted British bicycle which had to be dismantled in Bombay, carried in a jute sack to Calcutta by train and reassembled there for my use. It remained my prized possession for years as I rode my way through my adolescence on it to adulthood.

You used to surprise us by dropping in at our Calcutta residence all of a sudden sometimes when you regaled us with delightful stories about Bombay, the city and its culture. I learnt the word 'lafraa' from you early on without understanding what it meant. On one such occasion you had jokingly said that you would make three movies with the names, 'Hanumaner Bawgoley Phonraa' (হনুমানের বগলে ফোঁড়া), 'Dhar, Dhar, Pore Gyaloe' (ধর, ধর, পড়ে গেল), and 'Dhar Shalaake Morer Mathaay' (ধর শালাকে মোড়ের মাথায়). In my childlike innocence I took you at your word and waited for these to release but they never came into being. However, within a few years you were at your best when you won two international film festival awards for best documentary film for two of your films. We were all very proud of you and I in my adolescent idealism thought that you were simply a genius. We listened spellbound to your delightful storytelling about the Bombay film world. 

Two years ago from elder and younger cousin we became Facebook friends. Our telephone talks then, conversations about life and religion, the world and its anomalies, politics and films, and the follow-up deliberations on Facebook delighted me as also they delighted you. Your forthright views about the sham that commercial 'spirituality' of so-called godmen, organisation and authority has become marked you out as a straight-talking individual with cobweb-free clear conceptions and deep convictions, the pun that found placement here being unintended but appropriate at this distant hour brought to proximity through the fondness of memory, Deepdada. 

You were the only one who I lifelong addressed as 'dada' following the name of the person, quite unlike the common custom among Bengalis to address an elder brother with his name as prefix and 'da' attached as suffix as in Babuda as opposed to Babudada which is the way I called you and you alone, Deepdada. This sets you apart from all among my elder cousin brothers and brothers-in-law.

You were an intellectual non-conformist, a clear thinker, an uncompromising rationalist and an avowed atheist. Your diatribe against hollow 'holy' men was honest and heart-warming, although we differed on essential philosophical points in this regard. But your ideas were  rationally illumined and showed you the clear path of life which you traversed with dignity and delight, your never-ceasing charming smile lighting up the room despite your casually cast, caustic remarks about contentious issues in a delightfully humorous style all your own. 

After a protracted battle with cancer that you lost eventually, you have passed onto the other world -- a realm that you never believed in -- but we shall meet again for sure for I am convinced that you are still abiding where you ever were, immortal, luminous, blissful being, working at your reels and running them out till the universal spectacle stops for good and you are released unto your own Reality.

Goodbye for now, Deepdada ! Love, Laltu (Sugata Bose).

Comments : 

1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UVsQWog66oQ&feature=share

2. Usha Thomas : Gopa my heartfelt condolences. What a beautiful tribute to your brother by your cousin. From it I can understand how special he must have been.

3. Melita Malewar (Gopadi) : Laltu, such a beautiful tribute. God bless you.❤ 

4. Kasturi Chakrabarty (Didi) : Very well portray of Deep dada. Lots of childhood memories. Deep dada, we will miss your extraordinary sense of humour. Thank you Laltu for such a brilliant tribute.

5. Mousumi Guha : Laltuda beautifully written tribute.

6. Probir Niyogi : Very well written tribute, Laltu.

7. Melita Malewar (Gopadi) : A beautiful tribute to my brother Deep Pal, by my cousin Sugata Bose. Thank you Laltu, I am so touched.

8. Gopa my heartfelt condolences. What a beautiful tribute to your brother by your cousin. From it I can understand how special he must have been.

9. A beautiful tribute he covered so much, amidst the grief we must never forget how super talented Deep was and he leaves a legacy having taught so many his skills like his father and grandfather's before him.

The beautiful tributes must  e such a comfort to Yardley, Gopa Joy and Debika.

Rest in eternal peace dear cousin. ❤ 

10. Elain Greenhalgh : A beautiful tribute he covered so much ,amidst the grief we must never forget how super talented Deep was and he leaves a legacy having taught so many his skills like his father and grandfather's before him.

The beautiful tributes must  e such a comfort to Yardley, Gopa Joy and Debika.

Rest in eternal peace dear cousin. ❤ 

11. Alaka Basu : What a beautiful remembrance. Gopa, I am sorry that Deep is gone. But he lives on through all of you and through his work. Our condolences.

12. Elizabeth Vijayraghavan : Deepest condolences dear Gopa. Heartwarming tribute to your beloved cousin. May his soul Rest in Peace.

13. Melita Malewar : @Elizabeth Vijayaraghavan 🙏🙏🙏 , My brother passed away and not my cousin. My cousin  wrote the tribute to my brother.

13. Elizabeth Vijayaraghavan : @Melita Malewar, sorry Gopa. I Misunderstood. Even more deep will be your sorrow. Healing hugs my friend.

14. Melita Malewar: @Elizabeth Vijayaraghavan, we all make mustakes. Do not worry. 😍😘

15. Ishita Ray : Such a beautiful and warm tribute... ❤❤Take care mashi...

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