The police present Iva Bhattacharya with her portrait. (Amarnath Dutta)
Birbhum police made the 70th birthday of a Labhpur resident special as her daughter and son could not join her because of the lockdown.
Labhpur resident Iva Bhattacharya has been living alone since her husband Dilip Bhattacharya passed away a few months back. Police sources said Iva’s daughter Papiya, who lives in Visakhapatnam could not come down for her mother’s birthday. To ensure that her mother’s birthday was celebrated, Papiya contacted Birbhum police chief Shyam Singh and requested him to send a cake to Iva as she stayed alone.
It has been a ritual for Papiya to visit Labhpur this time of the year to celebrate her mother’s birthday, but coronavirus outbreak has snapped the tradition. The police, however, made up for her absence.
The police decorated Iva’s house with flowers and balloons and in the evening, Labhpur station officer in-charge Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and others came with a cake, a basket of mangoes and sweets to celebrate the birthday
“I am really overwhelmed as it is first time that my birthday was celebrated in such a grand way,” said Iva after cutting the cake and receiving wishes from policemen. The cops gifted Iva a framed picture of hers.
“Every year I used to go to Labhpur from Vizag and celebrate the day with my mother. It was impossible this year because of the lockdown. So, I requested the Birbhum SP to send a cake to her. But the police made my mother’s birthday special,” said Papiya, whose husband is with the Navy.
“She was not lonely till last year as my father was there. I felt sad for not being there this time but I was overwhelmed when my mother told me in the morning that the police were decorating our house. This was unexpected, I thank the police,” she said.
Papiya’s elder brother Subrata lives in Siliguri and couldn’t come home either because of the lockdown.
Singh said: “We came to know about her birthday from her daughter. We organised the celebration to make the elderly woman feel that we are there in the absence of her children.”
