Death of son puts paid to daily wager's hopes, dreams

The dreams of a daily wager lay shattered as the news came of his son’s death at a beach in Maharashtra on Saturday.

Nitin Mutnalkar, a sixth semester electronics and communication engineering student, was among the eight students who lost their lives at Vayari beach across the border. His father Bhima Mutnalkar works under a contractor at an aluminium factory. The family was hopeful Nitin would lift it out of poverty. On learning of the tragedy from TV news channels, Bhima rushed to the college, 10 km from Kakati, where the family lives.

The college was locked. Bhima and a group of relatives waited for the college authorities to turn up, but no help or information was forthcoming. Even the jurisdictional police, who visited the college, had to return as no one was around to give them details. A heartbroken Bhima said Nitin had left home at 8.30 pm on Wednesday, and called his mother on Friday evening. Nitin’s phone had remained unreachable since Saturday morning. “Eight students are dead and three critical, yet the authorities are not at the college,” Bhima said. A college employee said members of the management had rushed to the accident spot in Maharashtra following the incident.