My Ma (Dr. Jyotsna Bhattacharjee) who left us shattered

And finally, she had to succumb to that dreadful disease savaging the earth after a tough fight with it for four months and ten days, she finally breathed her last on 17th of May 2021 at 1.55 AM.

Dr. Jyotsna Bhattacharjee served as a Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy in Cotton College for 33 years. She was a double M.A from Calcutta University and London and a PHD from Jadavpur University. She had written several books on Philosophy besides a Children's story book, two novels in English and a book on her life's experiences and the people she came in contact within this journey of life. She regularly used to contribute articles and stories in various newspapers and magazines.

A woman par excellence, she had a charm, a sophistication and a pride that was no less royal. I was truly obsessed by these qualities of her. I had personally not seen a woman of her demeanour. She was not one who would raise her voice or lose her calm on anyone – be it the domestic help at home or her subordinates yet spoke with authority and commanded respect.

Ma – as I fondly used to call her — started by her only nephew from her brother and then eventually followed by us –and then her grandchildren and greatgrandchildren – probably she too loved that exchange of our love and emotions.

Every night since she is gone, I still remember that one phone call that had shattered our family – fear and sorrow engulfs me time and again. Death is inevitable –something we all knew would come but what happens in between birth and death is for us to decide — we make our destiny. In one of her chapters in her autobiography "Towards Sunset", she had mentioned that she was not very ambitious but from where I saw her – I could see an embodiment of Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati – a successful woman, an achiever who had given her entire life to her passion of teaching, to spirituality and shown us how to live this life. She had lived each and every moment of her life. Unlike her contemporaries, she had not let retirement or old age be a hindrance to her goals. She had always resisted from being a burden on anyone whatsoever – may be that's why she had chosen a death for herself and during such a time so that no one had to bother with the last rites. At 89, she knew that death was at her threshold but even that couldn't hold her back. Till the fag end of her life she kept on saying that she didn't have much time in hand and that she had a lot of work to finish. Her words only reminded me of a line from Robert Frost's poem Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening:- "And miles to go before I sleep".

Thank you for Ma – in your philosophical terms if you have found an answer to the existence of the soul after the body perishes, then we can be assured that we'll meet again in the other world – or may be we'll meet again in this world itself if the soul forsakes the old self and dons a new body – until then rest in peace.

Ritesh Bhattacharjee

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