Shanti Prasad Chakrabarty?s glasses, one arm broken, lie on the plastic packet he had been carrying before a private bus knocked him down and killed him at the intersection of Amherst Street and Surya Sen Street. His walking stick stands mute. Picture by Amit Datta

The hands fumbled to get a grip on the walking stick.

?Eta amar babar? Onar ki hoyechhey (This is my father?s. What?s happened to him)??

The officer fixed his gaze on Aniruddha Chakrabarty, 33. ?Aapni jinishgulo chintey parchhen to? Apnar baba mara gechhen, ekta bus dhakka-ey (Can you identify the articles? You father is dead, he was knocked down by a bus).?

It was 3.45 pm on Tuesday in the room for investigating officers at Amherst Street police station. Aniruddha stared blankly at the officer, paused for few seconds and then bent to pick up the plastic packet his father had been carrying.

Shanti Prasad Chakrabarty, 71, had left his CIT Road residence in Phoolbagan around noon for a check-up in Calcutta Medical College?s outdoor wing. The former research associate of Indian Statistical Institute had been nursing a bad knee for a year, after being hit by a cyclist on Dhakuria bridge a year ago.

A private bus on route 12C/2 hit Shanti Prasad near the Amherst Street-Surya Sen Street intersection around 12.10 pm. He died before he could be taken to hospital.

For the police records, Shanti Prasad Chakrabarty was just another road mishap victim. For Aniruddha Chakrabarty, it was a loss brutal and benumbing.