From a rebel poet’s nephew to dad of a child who came out
Times of India | 9 August 2024
Kolkata: Exceptionalism ran in Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s family right from his distant uncle to the “coming out” of his biological daughter Suchetana to Suchetan.
Bhattacharjee was a distant nephew of poet Sukanta Bhattacharya, who was known as “Young Nazrul” and “Kishore Bidrohi Kobi”, a reference to the great rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam for Sukanta’s similar rebellious stance against the tyranny of the British Raj and the oppression by the social elites through the work of his poetry.
Poet Sukanta Bhattacharya died from tuberculosis, three months before India achieved independence, at a tender age of 21.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was only three then.
The poet was the first cousin of the former chief minister’s father Nepal Chandra Bhattacharya. Although belonging to a family of priests, both Sukanta and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were avowed atheists, in accordance with the principles of communism.
Bhattacharjee was also extremely supportive of his daughter’s decision to come out as a trans man. “He had been quite frank and accepted my choice. I noticed a subtle sense of denial in my mother,” Suchetan had said in an interview to TOI last year.
Suchetan said he was conscious about his gender from his Montessori days. The kind of dress he wore, the haircut he flaunted made it evident that he felt like a boy.
“While pursuing my education, my classmates, irrespective of their gender, were very understanding. Both at Patha Bhavan and at Presidency University, I did not face any problem. At 41, I opted for sex reassignment surgery. It was my choice and my parents had no say in that,” Suchetan had said.