15 years after crash, an NRI keeps memories of family alive; thinks his daughter will come backNEW DELHI, OCTOBER 30: It’s a happy family photograph of a father, mother, their son and daughter. A photograph like any other which smiles from the familiar silver-frame in an NRI home. It was taken more than 15 years ago - not long before the mother, the son and the daughter disappeared.The photo hasn't faded.After Prakash Bedi learnt of the crash of Air-India's Flight 182 on the night of June 23, 1985, he decided not to let the memory of the crash and his family fade away. The general manager of a component-manufacturing company in Troy, Michigan, Bedi has used all resources at his command to keep that resolve.Bedi has been coming to India every year for the past 13 years to organise a football tournament in the memory of his son Jatin. Jatin, who was nine when he died, was a budding football player. ``The night before he boarded the plane, Jatin played in the final match for his club and I collected the trophy on his behalf after his death,'' says Bedi. The inter-school tournament is held at the St. Stephen's College ground every year.Bedi has instituted scholarships in the name of his daughter Anu at the St. Stephen's College and has plans to build a school in Delhi in the memory of his wife Saroj.Memories of that night never left Bedi who could identify the bodies of his wife and son. There was no trace of his daughter's body which left a sparkle of hope in him that she may have survived. ``She was a good swimmer,'' he says.Time magazine had carried a story saying that fishermen off the coast of Spain were witness to the crash. Bedi visited Spain and put advertisements in Spanish newspapers and pasted posters on walls with his daughter's photo. He announced a reward of $100,000 to anyone who could give him information.While he conducted the last rites of his son and his wife, he hasn't yet done so for his daughter. Neither has he changed his residence in Troy nor his telephone numbers. He believes his daughter will come back. ``Something within me tells me that she is alive somewhere. Maybe she lost her memory because of the accident,'' he says holding back tears. ``I sit at home and wait for that knock on the door which I will answer and will find a woman who will call me father.''Fifteen years after the tragedy, he still comes to Delhi, where his relatives are, every year. He stays for two months to organise the tournament and to run around to set up the school in his wife's memory.His request for land has been lying with the Delhi Development Authority for the past 10 years. ``I have satisfied all the conditions that they had asked for but it would be a disgrace to the name of my family if I paid even a cent of bribe to get the clearance,'' he says. This year, he plans to make his last visit to the DDA office, ``I shall tell them to either sanction the land or to stamp rejection on the file.''The arrest of two suspects in Canada last week has reopened some old wounds. ``I don't think these two were the only ones responsible. It was a huge conspiracy and more than a dozen people were involved,'' says Bedi.He is still bitter about the way Air-India handled the crisis. ``It was only after a showdown with the officials that they agreed to fly the relatives to London and from there to the coastal city of Cork in Ireland where the search operations were on. I swore to myself then to never take an Air-India flight again.'' He hasn't.
