made the first cup of tea in my life under his guidance.
One of the fondest times with him was the time when I tried cleaning our water reservoir tank in the middle of the day and he supervised from the ground, defying Maa's stern scolding to both of us. In his last years, he taught me to ride a scooter. He used to sit on the backside of the scooter, guiding me on how to move it in the traffic. He taught me that one is truly independent when one can do jobs of every kind irrespective of one’s gender or position.
He always kept his distance from the materialistic world. He was a free-minded man and taught us, his children, to have a free heart. Puta has lived a life full of adventures, exercises, and tours. He was always willing to work harder than his body can ever bear. He is not the kind of person who would like to live a life cursing his illness or old age. For a man as wild as him, it was difficult to bear retirement. He was not involved much with the sangathans after his retirement. However, given a chance, he would visit people of the sangathan from different parts of Assam. He felt bad to stay indoors for a long time. It was difficult to keep him indoors even during his illness. Whenever he felt a little better, he would go out to the publishing house to supervise the work of the last edited book. He was writing articles for newspapers and magazines even in his last days. After his demise, we found in his notebook written by him, "Even if I live, if I can't continue writing, such life would be worthless for me".
He lived like a wild bird and left us forever when his physical body had to be caged under treatment and care. He is a part of my conduct, my beliefs and my growth. He will always be an essential part of me.q
(Postdoctoral researcher at Ben Gurrion University of Negev, Israel)
