Click to play videoKolkata: After CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu's body went to medicine many have been inspired to do the same with people in Kolkata pledging their bodies for organ donation.
Basu’s death triggered an outpouring grief in West Bengal but the Marxist patriarch in his death has also inspired many, like 31-year old Bishu Halder.
An electrical mechanic by profession, Halder has turned out to be a prospective organ donor and the impetus has come after Basu's great last humanitarian gesture by willing his body for medical research.
"I was inspired by Jyoti babu. I felt that if a great man like him could do a thing like this to help the medical fraternity, so can I," says Bishu Halder
Halder is not the only one as inquiries at NGOs in Kolkata, which facilitate posthumous body donations, have jumped manifold in the past few days since Basu's donation pledge became public.
"I have myself attended about 300 calls so far. So I know that 70-75 per cent have already taken forms from here," says Braja Roy, General Secretary, Ganadarpan.
Activists on the job feel that religious sentiments and lack of information are the biggest hurdles to making body donation pledges. But when leaders like Basu set examples, it sure becomes easier to break mind blocks and take the plunge.
In his heydays, the Marxist patriarch was said to have politically inspired a whole generation of people in Bengal and outside.
At a time when that effect is steadily on the downslide, the avowed atheist in his final gesture has certainly provoked people to think beyond religious scriptures and make themselves useful for the biggest religion of all - humanity.
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