Feb. 22: Film songs of Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar and some dance music to spice up a workout session - these were the contents of the pen drive that Partho De had sent to Turning Point on the morning of his death.

De, whose body was found in the bathroom of his apartment, had over the past year slowly become an integral part of the mental rehabilitation centre in Bijoygarh, where he would go for weekly counselling.

"From a visitor, he had become almost a staff, taking active interest in the running of the organisation and the betterment of all its members," Turning Point president Kalyan Dasgupta said.

De had first gone to the Bijoygarh NGO as a "caretaker" but within one-and-a-half months was functioning as a "caregiver". He had gifted the NGO an old TV set he had and also a DVD player.

Jaya Das, a coordinator at the centre, had requested De for some songs from his collection. "De had a great collection of old songs. He also had a lot of Ashim Kumar movies on his hard drive. I had asked him to copy a few songs which we could teach the students here," she said.

Little did she know that the pen drive would reach them shortly before the news of De's death.

Partho used to cheer up the Turning Point members with music. "He would teach them some English numbers that his sister (Debjani) used to sing. He knew a few Bengali songs, too - Dhana dhanye pushpe bhora and Aguner parashmoni were two of his favourites. He would regularly sing those along with the members," Das said.

On the last two days he visited Turning Point, De had plugged his personal pen drive to the TV and everyone was doing the exercises he did at home.

"Our classes start at 10am. On Monday, Parthoda was late by an hour. He also left early saying he had a stomach upset. On Tuesday, he sent his caregiver with the pen drive, which the police have seized. We got news of his death by 1pm," said Anirban Bhadra, who, like Partho, teaches spoken English and computer at the centre.

Dasgupta, the 86-year-old president of the centre and a retired IAS officer, said De wanted to lead a better life and would help others do so.

"He was an avid listener, always full of questions about my experiences and interactions with great people. He would never tire of listening about my association with Tagore, Gandhi and Mother Teresa. He never spoke much about himself but loved to listen."

De's death has come as a shock to many of the members. "It was difficult to console them," Das said.

According to the members, De was the happiest at the February 10 picnic organised by Turning Point at Eco Park in Rajarhat.

He organised games, played cricket and sang his favourite songs at the picnic. "He was so full of life. On the day of the picnic, he had driven down to New Town with some of his friends from the organisation," Das said.

"Parthoda was all laughter while playing cricket at Eco Park," Bhadra said.

"He told us he used to play cricket when he was young and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Sehwag was his favourite player before Kohli piped him to the spot."

The general consensus at Turning Point was De was getting better. He had started driving down to the centre instead of taking a taxi. He interacted with the members a lot and even discussed with them his plans to do up his apartment.

"He never spoke rudely to anybody. It's sad he had to go when he was looking forward to a better life," Dasgupta sad.