Jalpaiguri residents will badly miss their ‘Chocolate Dadu’

EOI, SILIGURI, 31 Jan 2015: Subash Ghisingh spent the last years of his eventful life in exile in the plains of Jalpaiguri and Siliguri. Most people may only remember him as once being the final authority in the Darjeeling hills when it came to muscle and political power, but the residents of College Para in Jalpaiguri, particularly the kids, will miss their “Chocolate Dadu”, who will never come back to give them chocolates. The GNLF chief, who spent almost five years in College Para, had endured himself to its residents, and they are deeply saddened by his death. Sunil Sarkar, the owner of the house where Ghisingh had taken up lodgings, says it has remained unoccupied ever since the veteran Gorkha leader vacated it and moved to a flat in Matigara, Siliguri.

Sarkar said College Para residents had no qualms with Ghisingh over his political life and the Gorkhaland statehood issue; they loved the old gentleman for his gentle demeanour and gracious ways. Ghisingh’s neighbours - Laxmi Das, Tarun Das and Bharati Sarkar – are desperate to pay their last respects to their favourite Chocolate Dadu. Their one wish is that Ghisingh’s mortal remains be brought to College Para for one last time.

The GNLF president came to Jalpaiguri in February 2009 and departed in 2013 to shift to Matigara. During the five years of his stay, he wrote two books named ‘Buddhism’ and ‘Kherabadha’. His College Para neighbours further said Chocolate Dadu had started his next work on the role and sacrifice of the Gorkha soldiers during the two world wars.