We’ll miss our next-door neighbour: Palm Ave locals
Times of India | 9 August 2024
Neighbours gather at Palm Avenue to bid final farewell to the ex-CM KOLKATA: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was a formidable politician but for the residents of Palm Avenue, where the former CM stayed for decades, he was just a neighbour next-door.
Niranjan Singha, a senior citizen who stays close to Bhattacharjee’s residence at 59 Palm Avenue, said he considered him a neighbour more than a chief minister. “I can’t recall a single occasion when I went to his place with a problem and returned empty-handed,” said Singha, who works in a private firm.
“He would come without security guards to inaugurate our Kali puja and chat with us freely,” Singha added.According to him, the former chief minister had a very soft corner for his neighbours and he had given a strict instruction to his chief security officer not to restrict anyone from the para.
Santu Ghosh, another resident of Palm Avenue who works at a pharmaceutical firm, said he would miss him this August as Buddhababu used to hoist the Tricolour at the Ballygunge Yubak Brinda club. “During his tenure as the chief minister, before going to Writers’ Building to attend the flag hoisting ceremony on Aug 15, Buddhababu would hoist the national flag at our club ground first,” said Ghosh.
Lipika Ghosal Banerjee, who stays on the third floor of Bhattacharjee’s building, returned from her workspace after finding out about his death on Thursday. “He had always been a very simple person throughout his life. We never felt that we were staying with a VVIP in the same building. I have two sons, and the younger one is a special child. Every day at 9 am, when Bhattacharjee left home, my son would go down with his grandfather and he would affectionately pinch my son’s cheeks and get into the car. Though I never entered his room in the last 10 years, I always spoke with his wife whenever I met her.”
Ground-floor resident Souvik Gupta said his family had a very close relationship with the Bhattacharjees. “He gifted me a pen that I still have. Today, when I left home for the office, everything was quiet, but after reaching the office, I got the news and returned home,” Gupta said.
The Bhattacharjee family started staying at Palm Avenue in 1985. Moloy Biswas and Sarmistha Biswas, who stay at a house opposite the Bhattacharjees’ flat, stood at their gate holding a photograph when the former CM was taken to Peace World. “Dada gifted six pens to my younger daughter before Madhyamik and the HS. He was fond of fish, especially ilish. I can remember one day I bought an ilish and while my wife was cooking a dish, he called me and asked: ‘Bhombol, ilish machh khawabi na?’ I sent a dish to him. I had open access to his house. This year, two days after his birthday, I brought dosa for him from my restaurant. It is sad that I won’t hear his call ‘Bhombol’ ever again,” said neighbour Moloy Biswas.
Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya, a resident of the same building, said he had a very long acquaintance with him not only as a political colleague but also as a neighbour. “I remember him visiting me when I was down with chickenpox. I had asked him not to come near me but he said he wasn’t afraid of the contamination as he had pox twice earlier. I used to frequently visit him at his home.”