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Meet Leap Year Bose, a Sanskrit teacher named after his unique birth day

Hindustan Times, Kolkata | By
Mar 01, 2020 01:03 AM IST

His parents agreed and formally named him Leap Year. Since then he is known as ‘Leap Year sir’ to his students and ‘Leap Year’ to one and all.

In his 52-year long life, Leap Year Basu, a resident of Howrah district in West Bengal, has never met a namesake. Perhaps, he would not. He was born on February 29, 1968, and the family doctor suggested that he should be named Leap Year.

His parents agreed and formally named him Leap Year. Since then he is known as ‘Leap Year sir’ to his students and ‘Leap Year’ to one and all.

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“Bimalendu Sinha Roy, our family doctor, proposed my name. My father, Durgacharan Basu, and mother, Shefali, readily agreed. I have a nickname, Bablu, by which family members call me. Everyone else calls me Leap Year,” said Bose, a resident of Salkia in Howrah district.

A father of a 16-year-old son named Tamojoy, who appeared in the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education’s recently-concluded school-leaving exam this year, Leap Year Bose said that he never faced any embarrassment due to his unique name.

“All my records, from school-leaving certificate to university records and government-provided identity cards, that’s my name,” he said.

Bose graduated from the University of Calcutta in Sanskrit.

He lives with his wife, son and his brothers’ families.

In the Salkia area, he is quite a famous figure.

“Ask anyone in the locality and the neighbourhood for my address, and you will get to know. Everybody here knows Leap Year Bose. That’s kind of an advantage of my name,” he said, adding, he never thought of changing his name.

Leap Year Bose is a Sanskrit private tutor who also works as a part-time teacher at Anglo Sanskrit High School, a state government-aided school in Salkia. He is a former student of the same school. He has been teaching Sanskrit for the past 22 years and has dozens of students.

On Saturday, his students organised a birthday celebration at his home offering him sweets. At Anglo Sanskrit High School, Bose offered sweets to his students and other teachers.

“Our family had no tradition of celebrating birthdays. However, these days, students celebrate it,” he said.

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