Five families,five tales of loss

Newsline visited the homes of the five dead children; all told similar stories of loss. The mourning started when a flock of children came back running from the school in the morning bearing news of death to the concerned doorstep.

* Monica David was 16. Her mother,Yagesh doesn’t know yet that her daughter died a few hours earlier on a dark narrow staircase inside her school. Nor does she know that her husband is not in the casualty ward with their daughter but in the mortuary waiting for the postmortem.

“She left home at 8.30 am today. Her friends came running more than an hour later,saying there was a scuffle between boys and girls and some girls were taken to the hospital,” said Yagesh. “Now my husband is at the hospital with her and everything is going to be fine,” she says while asking her relatives not to cry.

* Lalita Nagar’s home is locked. The family has already left for their village in UP,with close relatives following them in buses. “We are going to the village. The last rites will happen there,” says a neighbour. Another neighbor said she hardly came out of her home and never played much. “She didn’t have many friends,she only used to study,” the neighbour added.

* At their single-room tenement in a narrow lane,Safeena mourns the death of her 12-year-old daughter,Mumtaz. Safeena heard of her only daughter’s death from the neighbours. Safeena’s husband Masoom Ali,a labourer,has gone to bring back the body. Safeena,leaning back on a group of relatives and neighbours,is too exhausted to talk. As someone brings out Mumtaz’s I-card,she starts crying again.

* At the home of 17-year-old Afroze ansari,a Class XI student,a blue tarpaulin is being spread overhead to stop mourners from getting drenched. It was a normal day for her family till the news of her death reached them. Her mother Samseeran was washing dishes when the flock of children arrived with the news. She ran to the hospital. “She was a nice girl and was fasting today. It was her social sciences paper today and she was preparing for it after reciting the Quran,” she says amid sobs. Her father,Ishaq Ansari,has gone to fetch the body.

* Waseem,10,cries on the door of a semi-lit corridor as he passes on the picture of his sister Ayesha Khatoun who died a few hours ago. “My exam was at 12,she had her exam in the morning. Then we heard of my sister’s death,” says Waseem.