Prithwish-babu and maths-ghost

I was never fond of maths, and always very fond of Biology. Prithwish-babu taught us maths at school, and I went to his home to get maths tuition. It is only because of his guidance that I scored decently in 10th boards. The Maths-ghost was shooed away by him.

I know he is terribly unwell now, and in hospital. While I feel guilty that I did nothing to try and keep in touch with him, some of us who became teachers ourselves, have unknowingly and unconsciously imbibed some of his life-values. Isn’t is strange that his nickname to his students was ‘bhelu’, his way of pronouncing that numerical quality . . . and to us now, he stays in our heart as that litmus test of being human. And so completely frill-lessly simply human.