Anjan Bhattacharya always wore a smile. "His smile took the tension away," his father, Sujan Bhattacharya said. "And he loved to hug. Once you hugged him, the anger went away." Anjan was a friendly, fun-loving teenager, who enjoyed soccer, movies and music. "He loved the Beatles and Yanni," Sujan Bhattacharya said. "He was my best friend because we used to do many things together."
Sujan Bhattacharya and Anjan enjoyed eating together. "He loved burgers, fries, fried chicken and pizza, typical American food," he said. "He loved apple pie."
Sujan Bhattacharya and his wife, Supriya Bhattacharya remember Anjan as happy and helpful. "He loved doing groceries," Supriya Bhattacharya said. "He used to help his dad by reminding him what we needed. He used to do a lot of chores around the house, and gladly."
At 8:30 a.m., Monday, Supriya Bhattacharya left her home on Brightwater Place, a Potomac Lakes subdivision of Cascades, for work. "I told Anjan to close the garage door, lock the door and go outside and wait for the bus," his stepmother said. "Ten minutes later, I got a call on my cell."
ANJAN, an 18-year-old Potomac Falls High School senior, drove in reverse through his garage, across the street, onto his neighbors' lawn and struck a tree and lamppost sideways, to the left. "His left side was severely injured," Supriya Bhattacharya said. "His arm was cut off at the shoulder, his knee socket popped out, he lost a lot of blood."
Anjan managed to crawl out of the car before it rolled back to the street. "Neighbors went running to help," a neighbor said. "They held him until the ambulances came."
Supriya Bhattacharya came home to police cars, fire trucks and four ambulances. "I couldn’t believe what was happening. I saw the garage door. The car was all mashed up," she said. "There were 50 to 60 people there."
He was transported to Potomac Falls High School, in order for the helicopter to land, so he could be airlifted to Inova Fairfax Hospital where he was pronounced dead, a neighbor said. "His heart stopped in the MedEVac, that’s the idea we’re getting," Supriya Bhattacharya said. "They are saying cardiac arrest."
Anjan, who was high-functioning autistic, did not have a learner's permit or driver's license. "His friends at school all have licenses, so he wanted one," Supriya Bhattacharya said. "He wanted to drive his father’s Volvo car, nothing else."
Anjan obsessed over his father’s Volvo. "Autistic children have these kind of obsessions," Sujan Bhattacharya said. "Lately, he was obsessed with my car. He was so proud that his dad had a Volvo, he wanted to show it to everyone. If I had known he was heading toward disaster, I would have stopped it."
THE HIGH-SCHOOL SENIOR enjoyed going to school, the gym and teen centers. "He was a very sociable person," said Potomac Falls High School principal, David Spage. "He loved talking with friends and he always had a smile on his face." At 18, he was beginning to make friends and enjoyed watching sports. "I like basketball so I was thinking I would take him to the MCI Center," his father said. "It was just the beginning. This would’ve been the fun time because we really were friends."
Anjan’s father admired his son’s ability to spread joy. "I am not that way," Sujan Bhattacharya said. "How quickly he could grab people’s hearts, I am not that way."