Bhawan’s room 408 will ‘never have anyone like Jyoti babu’

Though most senior officials are newly appointed and have had little opportunity to interact with the former West Bengal chief minister,junior staff members sat together,remembering how room number 408 — designated for the chief minister — was always given to the CPI(M) stalwart when he was in the Capital even after he had stepped down as the CM. “That room will never have anyone like Jyoti babu again,” said Pratap Sinha,Basu’s favourite cook and attendant at the Bhawan.

“Even after he had stepped down from the post of chief minister and came to Delhi for meetings,Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (present Bengal CM) let him occupy the room. He would stay in room number 401 instead.”

“I used to call him ‘Dadu’ (grandfather) initially but then someone told me he was the chief minister and that I should address him as ‘Sir’,” Sinha said. “I did start calling him that,but Jyoti babu was never formal with us. He,in fact,got me a job here,and even when he went to Manali for holidays,he took me along.”

Recalling Basu’s diet — “a small breakfast of fruit and juice,and rice and fish for lunch and dinner” — Sinha said: “He always ate very small portions. He loved all varieties of fish but his favourite was chicken soup. He made conversation with us as we served him during meals — he never made us feel small.

“In 1996,when there was a lot of political activity with Jyoti-babu nearly becoming the Prime Minister,he was calm even amid all that.”

Asit Kumar Pal,working at the Banga Bhawan since 1990,said: “Jyoti babu usually came here alone but there were a few occasions when his wife accompanied him. While he attended meetings in the Capital,she stayed at the Bhawan — we arranged video cassettes of Bangla movies for her.”

Lift operator Pramod Pramanik said: “There weren’t too many security personnel accompanying him in the initial years,but he was heavily guarded later on.”