A home away from home: Dolna Day School founder, 'Aunty Mashi' passes away at 89
Telegraph | 21 August 2025
A woman who pioneered a creche, a concept that let women go out to work back in the 1970s while their children were cared for and attended to, is no more.
Madhusree Dasgupta — fondly called Aunty Mashi by her students — passed away at her home on Tilak Road, near Deshapriya Park, on Tuesday morning. She was 89.
Dasgupta started Dolna (the Bengali word for cradle), a creche, in 1972 with an objective to provide “a home away from home”.
“Her thought was to provide working opportunities for parents because mothers were not working in large numbers then. Mothers didn’t have a place where they could keep their children that was secure, and they could go to work with ease of mind,” said Jyotishka Dasgupta, her son, who is the president of Calcutta School of Music.
Jyotishka Dasgupta said the idea was borrowed from Russia because Madhusree Dasgupta’s mother, writer Maitreyi Devi, had visited that country and seen creches functioning under government patronage.
“She had shared these stories when she came back to Calcutta, and ma picked up the idea. She said she must do something like this in the city,” Jyotishka said on Tuesday.
Dasgupta received The Telegraph She Awards for education in 2020.
Dolna Day School is an ISC school, and the creche continues to be its mainstay. They look after children from three months to 18 years, till they complete Class XII.
“The institution has never been allowed to grow to an unmanageable size at the cost of the quality of service that is offered,” says its website.
Many of her students paid tribute to her in person and on social media.
Filmmaker Srijit Mukherji posted on his FB profile: “Smell of an oil cloth smeared in Johnson’s baby talc. Sound of a piano punctuated by a chorus of voices negotiating puberty. Sight of Mother time wrapped in white with a chilled glass of Thumbs Up. Auntymashi was for me what Altamira’s cave painting is for mankind. The primordial memory of existence, combined with the fundamental expression of all things beautiful. RIP.”
Dasgupta was taken to Dolna Day School for an hour on Tuesday, where students, teachers, parents and former students paid their last respects to her. “The love and affection she had for everyone was infectious,” said her son.
A teacher who has been with Dolna for the past 40 years said: “She was the founder of our institution and a hands-on leader, someone who would continue to give her advice that we would look forward to.”
Dasgupta is survived by her son Jyotishka; daughter Madhura Bhattacharya, now the principal of Dolna Day School; daughter-in-law; son-in-law and grandchildren.