Together even in death

Tejas, one of the seven boys who died, had left his house in the morning after telling his mother he wouldn8217;t need to take his books since there was a function in school. 8220;He had not been going to school for some time. But after his class-teacher pulled him up, he started going regularly.8221;

Sanjay8217;s death has shattered his father Sakharam. 8220;Just recently he had learnt tailoring and was helping me out8221;, said his grieving father. 8220;I always used to tell him not to waste his time8221;, said Sanjay8217;s shell-shocked elder brother Ganpat.

Relatives of Shakti, another boy suspected to have drowned in the lake, have launched a frantic search for the boy. Nitin Vaidya, the Katargam zone executive engineer who8217;s supervising the recovery operation, said he might not have drowned. But the authorities continued to search for the body till late in the evening.

When contacted, city mayor Bhikabhai Boghra said the kin of the deceased 8220;should be given8221; some compensation as they all happened to belong to the economically backward families. But that is unlikely to wipe away the tears of the bereaved.