JOIN USReturning home from the cremation ground, eight-year-old Daksh Saini squats in a corner, unable to comprehend that he saw the last of his mother and brother when he lit their funeral pyre.
Daksh, from Malipura village, had cremated mother Anuradha (30) and little brother Shobit (6) with his grandfather on his side. Both perished with 22 others at the wedding hall in Bharatpur on Wednesday night where a wall collapsed over them.
Holding the photographs of his mother and brother, whom he calls his cricket partner, he asks: “Wo kab aaye ge...phir papa se milne jayenge” (When will they come so that we can meet dad?)
Father in hospital
His father Jawahar Saini was injured in the wall collapse and is lying unconscious at the hospital. Daksh learnt about the departure of his parents and brother to the wedding from his neighbour.
Sixty-year-old Devi Bai and Madan Lal were still coming to terms with the death of their daughter-in-law and grandson. “We were all supposed to be at our neighbour’s wedding,” a tearful Devi Bai told DH. “I was unwell and my husband stayed back. So was one of the grandsons. Otherwise, even he would have gone.”
A visibly shaken Madan Lal dreaded the moment when he had to tell his son, unconscious in hospital, the demise of his wife. “My son is the breadwinner for our eight-member family,” Lal said. Anuradha and Jawahar were married nine years ago and have two children, Daksh and Shobit.