Memories — Uday Sengupta

Yesterday I attended the first Anniversary of Uday Sengupta leaving this world. It brought back some touching memories.

Uday went thru cancer treatment for his brain tumor before I was diagnosed with cancer. He and his family, like most people, had kept the bad news limited to their family, but as usual, everybody knew about it. When I was diagnosed with it, he was in a period that was quite optimistic period during his treatment. He visited me several times and used to be very sentimental. He will affectionately sit next to me hold my hands and will assure me that things will improve and I will be OK. He was always trying to reassure me.

Uday was a talented man — a scientist, and entrepreneur, a social worker who after making fortune in his company started contributing to the less privileged people in the society and got involved in ‘learning technology revolution’ and was involved in serious projects in China. He was a good painter also. His paintings in his house clearly show how talented he was. But above all these things, he was a sensitive and caring human.

Unfortunately by the time I got cured of my cancer, his tumor started acting up. And finally cancer won.

Sitting in the Puja for his anniversary, all those things were going thru my memory. I could not help but think — how lucky I am to be here and healthy. Ironically, many people were commenting at that function for Uday about how much younger and better I look compared to before cancer. The joke that I always use in response to these comments that ‘I tried everything to lose weight, but the only thing that worked was cancer’ came to my mouth, but I felt hesitant saying that.

Life is so uncertain. The best is to live each day as this is the only day you have to appreciate what you have, to contribute to the world (and all people in it) that gave you so much, and to really enjoy the passage. Yes, life is a passage and we should maximize not the length of time but the value of time that we spend in this passage.

5 thoughts on “Memories — Uday Sengupta

  1. Ashok Ghosh

    Sorry learn about the sad demise of Mr. Uday Sengupta. I used to know one Uday Sengupta who was the eldest brother of my college class mate Uttam Sengupta – in 1973-74. At that time Uday Sengupta was teaching Physics in an American University . Their parents were from Barrackpore – West Bengal .

    I would be interested in knowing if this Uday Sengupta was the same gentleman , and if so whether Mr. Jain has the contacts of his younger brother Uttam Sengupta

    Ashok Ghosh
    Ministry of Finance , Govt. of Uganda
    Kampala

  2. rita dicello

    I have a client who has a painting by a “Uday Sengupta”. I am unable to locate a sale record but would like to know if this is the same person. Can someone help. It is from the 1970’s.

  3. Laura Williams Rice

    I remember Uday from Ohio State when I was a student there. He was the roommate of Sargur Srihari who also went on to make a name for himself. I remember his paintings in the little apartment they shared. Then I was too poor to buy one, ( $400 was a lot of money to me!) although now I wish I had because I would treasure it. Are there any photos of his paintings on the web?

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