Ms R. Saha, our member, then resident of Kharagpur, had a problem with her thyroids for quite some time. She was advised to see an endocrinologist in Kolkata. The Kolkata doctor checked her up. He suspected malignancy and wanted her to go to Mumbai for further investigation. The grim diagnosis, given that she had two young children, saw her world crumbling before her, as she travelled back from Kolkata to Kharagpur.
It was then that she noticed her fellow passengers: a man with his teenaged son, who was asking rather childish questions: “Baba this is a cow, isn’t it? This is called paddy field, is it not? How beautiful these are!” She could not help ask the gentleman about his son. The answer turned her life around.
The boy, from Panskura, had lost his eyesight when he had chicken pox, when only three. The father and son were returning home after a successful Cornea transplant. The boy was excited to see the world in all its beauty. Ms Saha was a little embarrassed but also inspired. The teenager’s innocent questions gave her courage to fight against an undiagnosed disease and unplanned future. His fight and victory against darkness ending with his world all lit up seemed to help her overcome her own fears.
“After that journey, I was never afraid of visiting Mumbai for my treatment. The growth turned out to be benign and I am still fit and fine!”

Born in 1938, our member, Mr D. K. Dasgupta, had a very exciting childhood. He was raised in North Kolkata at a time when the city was in the throes of the freedom movement. The Dasguptas had their ancestral house on Upper Circular Road (now APC Road) just opposite the famous Rammohan Library. Some family members were very close to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Mr Dasgupta studied at the Mitra Institution Main, central Calcutta and played football with his friends at the local Hrishikesh Park. There was an army havildar, who trained them in parades with dummy rifles and taught them the procedure for a Gun Salute. There was more. Mr Dasgupta was trained in body building in the gymnasium of the famous Bishnu Charan Ghosh, popularly known as Bistu Ghosh and, over time, got drawn into the freedom movement as many young people of the times were. In any event, members of his family were deeply involved in the struggle for independence. His maternal uncle was the well-known Bimal Dasgupta, an active member of the then revolutionary organization Bengal Volunteers, led by the famous Dinesh Gupta of Binoy-Badal-Dinesh fame. Bimal Dasgupta was later sentenced to 12 years in the Andaman Cellular Jail because of his revolutionary activities.