KOLKATA: A tragedy on the high seas; a wife, son, and an elderly mother’s desperate hopes flickered for a few days till the news came that the search for marine engineer Sambit Majumder, who went missing from his ship, had been called off.
That was June 21, 2020, three days after he was reported missing by the crew of the Liberian-flagged oil tanker ‘MT Serengeti’.
Late Sambit Majumder’s wife Jayati (in blue) after the body was brought to their Bansdroni home
Two weeks later, just as the family was coming to terms with their loss, came the shocker that his body had been found floating near the coast in Taiwan’s Taitung County.
That was July 2 and that’s when Jayati’s struggle to bring back her husband’s mortal remains began. That struggle ended on Monday when her 50-year-old husband’s mortal remains finally reached their Bansdroni home.
Sambit’s body was cremated at Keoratala crematorium around 3.30 pm with his wife performing the last rites in the presence of Sambit’s friends, family members and relatives. Later, the ashes were immersed by her son at Judges’s Ghat.
It took three separate DNA tests involving Sambit’s son and mother, and continuous coordination with the authorities in Taiwan, for the body to be identified as that of Sambit.
The Taitung County prosecutor’s office finally arranged for the repatriation of the body with the help of the Indian external affairs ministry through the India-Taipei Association, which is the representative office of India in Taiwan.
“I will finally get the time to reflect and come to terms with living without him for the rest of my life. Now my only focus is our son,” Jayati told TOI after the cremation.