Remembering Moulick Da

How often does a surname eclipse the name itself? We consider it ‘given’ to address someone as Banerjee Uncle, Chowdhury Da or simply as Niyogi. Their first name gets buried as time ticks away and its left to an Aadhar or a PAN to keep the record, like a numbed custodian of forgone civilization!  All of us have some of these faces around and they, in many cases mean a world to us. I haven’t checked, but feel pretty certain they enjoy being addressed that way as the warmth, love and affection emits a radiant smile on the face of the (sur)name. So a Ganguly is always Saurav, a Dhoni is Mahendra, Gavaskar is a certain Sunil and a Bachchan is…..well you know who!

Siddhartha Moulick. I haven’t come across many who has known him by his first name. You call him by the surname, and whole of the ‘captive audience’ know who the Man is. Moulick to some, Moulick Da to many others like me. Its queer to think how the boss (no, leader) in your first job embeds the tenets of the future leader in you (Isn’t it, folks). No, he did not had any of those serious looking, high volt B-School aura, neither he was an engineering graduate parachuted into sales (as the trend is), but someone who mastered the art by perseverance, hard work and very keen sense of understanding of the subject. He could read people’s mind and draw inferences which could stun anyone. He could, at a half glance, spell out the distribution reach of his company products in the retail counter. He need not close his eyes (and feign a meditation!) to sequentially name the retail units in a specific ‘beat’, be it New Market, Theatre Road or Kasba! A bachelor by choice, was in love with his work which took him to many places around the globe, but remained a proud Bengali and a hard core Calcuttan. In the early days of my career, when I used to stay in a shared accommodation near Moulali, he would occasionally drop in and take me to Academy Of Fine Arts. Theatre, was his other love. Here is a man who do not just do number crunching at office but also has a slice of life beyond office hours. Here was one who could rest his vocal chords all along, but ensure his presence means a thunder.

However, it appears very bizarre to even think that I actually had a very limited working relationship with him. While he continued with a leading Indian MNC for a very large part of his career, our paths separated very early. Later we met again, not as a colleague but as a neighbour in the state capital of Jharkhand. After a day’s work, he would drop in to my place as we watched the Bengali comedy serial Mirakkel together (which he really loved) before calling it a day. He became my morning walk partner as two red-eyed lazy souls would venture out in the morning (with a couple of angry looking street dogs for company), in complete disregard to the inner calls which pleaded against such hara-kiri! However such ‘honest’ efforts of staying fit did not work well which we realized in days to come! In another occasion, he asked me to accompany him to deliver a Diwali gift to the legendary cricket captain, based out of the same town who also happened to be the brand ambassador for his erstwhile company. The plan crashed without a whimper as some sudden underworld threat to the captain’s family meant a complete cordoned off entrance. He was visibly upset! In some lazy weekends, he would be my son’s play mate, as two uneven aged ‘young stars’ would bowl and bat with all seriousness.

Almost 2 years back, when his health deteriorated and was undergoing dialysis at a city hospital, few of us formed a WhatsApp group to share his health updates. The group grew, as it does, and later he too joined, not knowing how he inspired us to come together after almost 2 decades! Interim he suffered from covid and with all possible co morbidness on Earth, he surprised us by trouncing the virus in no time. A soccer freak and an eternal East Bengal fan, he would keep himself updated with the score lines even on the dialysis table. In many a friendly banter, he would tease the Mohun Bagani in me, reminding the 5-0 score line of 1975 and how that record remained intact. In return I would slyly remember him of more recent (!) East Bengal’s draught run in pursuit of I-League title for last 16 years! He would feel sad over it and I sadder, to make him feel so! During the early days, no amount of office exigency could hold him back when it comes to Kolkata derby. He will break free. PPT or excel had to wait till the match got over. And with a pre-condition of a favourable result though!

I met him last about two months back at a social function, when the entire city was submerged with torrential rains and the car survived a near engine siege to make misery complete. He looked happy and charged up and spoke about how apart from the ‘dialysis’ he has no major problem and has joined a company as a consultant. He appeared padded up for the next innings.

Life had different plans though. The innings remained short lived.

We look for heroes on screen. We take pride to quote from motivational gurus and pay to listen to them. We viral their videos. We love reading stories of success. Seldom we realise we have such inspiring figures in so many places, not just in TV screens or glossy magazine covers. They keep touching our hearts in so many different ways. And remain largely unsung.

As I slide through the phone touchscreen in our ex-employee WhatsApp group, I stumbled upon his last post, which he made a day before he slept peacefully, never to wake up again. How coincidence it was, that post from Cadbury which by now is viral.

I play it once more. The lyrics never appeared this poignant

‘………kuch baat hai hum sabhi mein

‘Kuch khaas hai…..hum saabhi mein”

Sleep tight Captain.  We will continue.