Death in the family

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I have lost another brother – this time the eldest one who was a kind of father figure, especially since all of us collected at Bhopal after our respective retirements. He, Sanjoy Bagchi, surviving for 90 years somehow lost the battle with multiple ailments. Towards the end he went under a total life support system but started to sink and eventually passed away on the 20^th evening.

He was a lively person and was a foodie and loved the best of liquors and wines which he could afford being a UN pensioner. Even a few months back he would have “mangoras” and pakoras at the Arera Club to go with his regulation tots in the evenings. Having been to every continent he had developed a keen interest in different cuisines. He was even adept in cooking Mexican paella. It was he who told me to try Schnitzel in Vienna when my wife and I were going there on a brief visit.

He was a precocous child who turned out to be a very bright young man. He scored 240 out of 300 at the IAS interviews in 1953 along with another batch-mate who I think was K. Natwar Singh. He was a voracious reader. After getting into the IAS he became a member of the World Book Society and got Sir Winston Churchill’s six volumes on the Second World War. Eventually he built up a huge library of around 5000 books, most of them hard cover, which he donated to the MP Institute of Good Governance named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a friend from his college days. His philanthropy was phenomenal. He used to donate money to several institutions which he felt were deserving of his compassion. He provided financial support for the family of the help he had had for the last twenty years. The Arera Club was his first love and he went and donated Rs 5 Lakh to it for installation of a lift.

In his career at the UN agency of GATT his Director General continued him as his consultant for two decades. Later his distinguished stint at the GATT saw him installed as Executive Director of a “non-official” body of International Textile Control Board by representatives of several countries some of which were not very friendly with India. Textiles were his forte having been Additional Textile Commissioner and Textile Commissioner of India for substantial lengths of time.

A good life – with some lows and many highs – has now come to an end. Hopefully, he will meet up with those from the family who preceded him and have gone where all mortals go after their life on the planet comes to an end.  I, who is left behind, can only wish eternal peace for his soul