For a long time the talk has been gloomy – Covid, getting better, getting worse, debates on chances. All the talk that surrounds those stricken by the virus. My meetings with Soumitra Da have mainly been in public with few chances for conversation barring the usual ‘kaemon acheyn’? Once most memorably, at Rituparno’s house 8 years ago on my friend’s passing. I had heard that Soumitra Da had cancer but nonetheless he was there and we exchanged glances without really knowing what to say – someone much younger had left well before his time. Soumitra Da was then nudging 80 and mortality must have hurt. Then there were meetings at book launches where we had both been invited and he greeted me with his characteristic smile and made space for me to sit down, though whether he remembered me was debatable. Nor was it fair to expect it from him in the middle of all his assignments and the stress of his life.