4 min readPuneApr 7, 2026 01:02 PM IST
First published on: Apr 7, 2026 at 01:01 PM IST
In the last few weeks, Vishal Verma, the 20-year-old cadet at Tolani Maritime Institute (TMI) in Pune who died on Sunday morning after the rim of a basketball hoop collapsed on his head, used to speak about a trip. Once he completed his Marine Engineering degree at, joined the Merchant Navy, and started earning, the first thing he told his friends he would do was take his parents on a flight. His father, a farmer from Ayodhya, and his mother, a homemaker, had never flown.
He was closer to achieving that dream. He had cleared multiple rounds of the campus placement process with NYK Line, a Japanese shipping company, becoming the first student in his batch to secure a job offer. Only his medical results remained, expected this week, which those who knew him believed he would have cleared without difficulty.
Boy from Ayodhya
His classmates described him as a rare combination of academic excellence, athletic ability, and a warmth that cut across every social boundary on campus.
“From the security guard to the principal, he had good relations with everyone. No grudges with any of the cadets on campus. His overall conduct was impeccable,” one classmate recalled.
“He was a national-level sprinter who had represented his sport at the Khelo India event and was widely regarded as the best athlete at TMI,” he added. On March 21, barely two weeks before his death, he had won first prize at Naughtica 2026, a prestigious fitness event bringing together cadets from maritime institutes across the country, held in Mumbai.
“He was also in the rank list, the institute’s academic merit list. He excelled in academics and was an all-rounder,” a classmate said.
All hopes on him
Back home in Ayodhya, Vishal’s family had placed all their hopes on him. He has two brothers: an elder one employed in Gujarat and a younger one still in school.
Vishal was studying on an educational loan. The family’s financial situation is fragile, and Vishal’s entry into the Merchant Navy represented their best hope for stability. “The whole family was hopeful that Vishal would get into the Merchant Navy and help the family become financially stable,” said Pradip Chaudhary, Vishal’s uncle based in Pune, who rushed to the hospital after learning of the accident.
“When I reached MIMER Medical College and Hospital in Talegaon, doctors told me there might have been a chance of survival had the patient arrived 15 to 20 minutes earlier,” Chaudhary added.
A class that refuses to move on without him
For the 39 cadets who shared a division with Vishal, the loss has been incomprehensible. “We couldn’t sleep last night in his memory,” one classmate said.
But amidst the grief, there is something quietly remarkable about how his batchmates have chosen to remember him. “Our division had a total headcount of 39, and even now that Vishal is no more, we believe his willpower and champion attitude will remain with us forever. Our batch will be of 39, even after this,” a classmate said.
His seniors, too, have refused to let the moment pass quietly. They have demanded that no lectures be conducted at the institute until accountability is fixed, until someone answers for the complaint about the shaking basketball poles submitted 22 days before the accident and for the ambulance that didn’t respond.
Deceased cadet Vishal Verma 
Share
