A good student always ready to help others: Profs

Updated on: Saturday, January 09, 2010

Kolkata: A year after 26/11, Khusboo decided to do something that would keep Malayesh Banerjee’s memory alive - a Rs 80,000 scholarship to be awarded to a third-year student who, like Malayesh, demonstrates all-round excellence.

“I know that Malayesh is no more. But I want his name to remain forever,” she says.

By now, the IIT-Kharagpur lovebirds would have been married for a year, bulk-mailed pictures of their honeymoon, perhaps had their first fights, but a bullet changed it all. Malayesh was among those gunned down in Leopold Cafe during the 26/11 attack in Mumbai, just 10 days before their marriage.

IIT-Kgp architecture department dean B K Sengupta remembers Malayesh as a very bright boy. “He was a good student, always ready to help others. We hope the scholarship will inspire many more to be like Malayesh,” he said.

Khusboo will donate a majority of the Rs 10 lakh corpus, with friends contributing the rest. She and Malayesh’s parents had earlier set up a small scholarship for a school in Ranchi from his savings.

Once a chirpy girl, who could never stop giggling, Khushboo rarely smiles these days. Ironically, that is what Malayesh told her the last time they met. “In July 2008, when I was in Mumbai for work, he said I shouldn’t smile so much when we meet because it embarrassed him,” she said, unable to stop the tears.

Their story had started ‘Long long ago, on a misty cold night in Pondicherry...’

That’s how it will always be.

A good student always ready to help others: Profs

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