A son’s fight, a family’s strength: ‘Blaze’ is a tribute to courage

KOLKATA: Cancer doesn’t just affect the patient. It shakes the entire family to its core. It brings pain, helplessness and moments of despair. But in that struggle, there can also be courage, self-discovery and the triumph of the human spirit. For Nidhi Poddar, a homemaker and Sushil Poddar, a senior government official, their decade-long journey with their son Divyansh Atman—diagnosed with leukemia at just 12—was filled with hope and heartbreak.

Though Divyansh passed away in 2019 at the age of 22, his laughter, dreams, and relentless spirit continue to live on. Through ‘Blaze: A Son’s Trial by Fire’, a memoir penned by his parents, they have turned their grief into a legacy of love, strength, and purpose. On Friday, at the 48th International Kolkata Book Fair, the Bengali edition of ‘Blaze’ was launched in the presence of the writers-parents, publisher Tridib Kumar Chatterjee (Patra Bharati), and guests Debojyoti Bhattacharya, Saikat Mukhopadhyay, and Sudhangshu Sekhar Dey.

Chatterjee shared that the English manuscript was sent to literary giants Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Sanjiv Chattopadhyay and both were moved by Divyansh’s story.

National Award-winning actor Ashish Vidyarthi also spoke at the event, lauding Sushil and Nidhi for transforming their personal grief into a powerful tribute to life. “Divyansh was diagnosed at 12, and we lost him at 22, but in those years, he taught us how to create our own destiny.

This book found its own destiny through us. Blaze is about the fight, the sacrifice, and the pursuit of a dream… it challenges stereotypes around cancer and aims to create a social impact,” said Sushil. Nidhi recalled a poem her son had written, where he promised to always be her canopy.

“Losing him broke me, and I didn’t know how to go on. But even in his absence, he guided us. Through Divyansh, Sushil and I found our path to self-discovery,” she said.