Kolkata:
Pranab Gupta has lost his most ardent fan, his student-activist son Sudipto Gupta.
"He would come beside the bed and stand, listening to my violin. He used to say that my music was an inspiration for him. Who will now listen to my violin?" asked Mr Gupta.
Sudipto died on Tuesday evening after he was arrested along with other student activists protesting against the government in West Bengal. His friends say he was beaten relentlessly by the police.
But the police have claimed that Sudipto, a member of the Students Federation of India, the students' wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), fell out of a bus that was taking him to prison and hit his head against a lamp post.
"I am not keeping well. Who do I live for now?" asked his father.
"My son was a voracious reader. He used to read books of all kinds well into the night. For him, reading was a means of gaining real education. He dreamt a lot. He used to dream of a new social order, a new dawn," he recalled.
Sudipto's mother died a year ago.
"I will not let his death go in vain. I will fight for justice," said Mr Gupta.
Before leaving the house for his duties as a state committee member of the Students Federation of India, Sudipto would cook for his father and feed him his lunch and medicines.
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On Wednesday evening, the flower-bedecked hearse with Sudipto's body wrapped in a red flag halted close to his residence.
Helped by CPI-M and SFI leaders, Mr Gupta walked up to his son's body and placed some flowers on the hearse.