Sushant Singh Rajput's ancestral village Maldiah in Purnia and his mother's ancestral village Bouranya in Khagria districts in Bihar were enveloped in grief on Monday too, a day after the actor's shock death in Mumbai.
"The demise of Sushant is not only a loss of an individual but a loss of a great talent, who remained down-to-earth in life and like a Gulshan (garden) to us villagers, who are still proud of him," remarked Pramod Kumar, a resident, adding that hardly anyone had food on Sunday after they heard the grim news.
According to Panna Singh, Sushant's cousin who lives in Purnia, the Bollywood star was a strong-willed young man with an ever-smiling face.
"I don't remember ever seeing him sad. Always maintaining his captivating smile, he met us whenever we arrived. The village is mourning his death deeply," Lakhinder Singh, an old villager, told the media at Lal Maldiha.
Another cousin of Sushant, Santosh Singh recalled how Sushant had played cricket with all his young friends in the village when he arrived here in 2019.
Padma Devi, 50, an aunt of Sushant, in a voice filled with grief remembered how her 'Gulshan' had promised her to take her on a pilgrimage to Badrinath.
"O God! Why you didn't take away my soul instead of taking my Gulshan's life," she said, weeping inconsolably.
At Bouranya in Khagaria, where his mother was born, people remembered how approachable Sushant was during his recent visit for performing a mundan (tonsuring pf his a cousin of after the fulfilling of a wish).
"His smile and him greeting the people in the local dialect still make us nostalgic and sentimental. His suicide has something that is beyond our knowledge but god will disclose it," many villagers of Bouranya hoped.
Family sources said he had agreed to father's wishes and was to get married in November.
Sushant's relative Panna Singh and many others in his village have expressed doubts about the circumstances behind his death.
"There is definitely some conspiracy behind this. There should be a CBI inquiry," the villagers demanded in unison.
Sushant was fond of reading non-fiction and books on astrophysics besides reading about metaphysics.
Family sources added that he used to stare into the sky at night admiring the faraway stars. He had bought a powerful telescope and kept it at his Mumbai residence.
A close scientist friend of Sushant, astrophysicist Dr Karan Jani, in a tweet shared how the late actor's house was filled with thick non-fiction books.
Dr Jani recounted how the actor had taken his telescope to Chambal during the shooting of Sonchiraya to observe nebulae.
"Our 2017 discovery of the neutron star collision was the closest to him. It was his dream to one day visit the LIGO observatories in the US," Dr Jani shared through his tweet.
He further described Sushant noting "His social media bio read - Photon in a double-slit. He was indeed like that, living with a duality. With one being a Bollywood star with millions of followers, while the other being an honest seeker finding a meaning in this universe."
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