At trauma centre,a prayer for the brave

The two men in their thirties were among the four who died in an accident late Sunday night on the BRT corridor in South Delhi.

When the bodies came on a stretcher around 3.30 pm,six BSF men placed them in the coffin,and then picked up the ice and laid it carefully,first around Ravinder Kumar’s body. It would be a long ride home to his native village in Kangra,where his parents live.

They did the same with Deepak Mehra’s body.

A friend who had been Mehra’s roommate in Gwalior when they had both joined BSF 10 years ago said he was a jovial person who cracked jokes often and never complained about the long and tough hours.

On Monday afternoon,as he sat and waited to bid final farewell to his friend and fellow officer,flashes of their past life returned. As part of their training,they had to run 40 kilometres with 20 kilogrammes of weight on their backs. That was tough but Mehra laughed all the way,the friend (name withheld since he is not authorised to speak to the media) said.

“He was a jolly guy — he loved life and was always up for any task.” Mehra also played football for the officer’s team: “he was pretty good.”

Mehra’s family — wife,a six-year-old son,and a daughter of three years — live in Srinagar,where he was last posted. His parents are in Kangra.

From Ravinder Kumar’s family,his cousin brothers-in-law had come to accompany the body to Bhakhra,in Himachal Pradesh,where his wife and children live with his father Jograj Chandel.

H S Ram stared at the coffin,and then followed the guards as they stacked flowers on the body. “We have told his wife,” Ram said. “His two children are very young.”

Two head constables and nine constables will accompany the body till the native village of each official.

On the other side of the lawn where the BSF personnel waited,a family carried its dead to the van. Sunder Lal,40,was on his way back from a wedding in Pitampura when his scooted was hit by the bus.

His brothers Sur Dayal Singh and Prabhu Singh came to the Trauma Centre at 3.25 am after getting a call from the police. “He has four daughters and a son — his wife died long ago and our mother lives with the family now,” Prabhu Lal said.