Next year,he would have been our chawls first scientist

Late on Wednesday evening,as neighbours,relatives and friends waited for Umangs parents Udaynarayan and Usha Singh to return from JJ Hospital with the remains of the budding scientist,the air in the chawl hung heavy with despair interspersed with streaks of anger.

He had a bright future,we were proud of him, said friend and neighbour Ashish Vishwakarma,27. In March 2010,he would have earned the title of scientist,the first boy from our chawl to do so. He had very few hobbies,his passion was science.

Umang,a Chemistry post-graduate from Bhavans College,Andheri,was pursuing a Ph.D at BARC through a collaborative programme between the Centre and the University of Mumbai.

Said Jairam Govale,Umangs friend and Ph.D student,He worked extremely hard. Three of his research papers in photochemistry and anti-oxidants have been published on the BARC website.

Vishwakarma has vivid memories of the studious boy who woke up at 3 am to study under a street lamp on the noisy highway,during his B.Sc days in Ismail Yusuf college. Umang worked his way up on his own steam,with no financial help from anybody, he said.

Family members said Umang had been given accommodation by BARC in a flat in Kharghar which he shared with a few colleagues. He visited home over weekends. He was very quiet,but he loved to spend time with children, said next-door neighbour Sadhana Tripathi.

Munna Singh,Umangs maternal uncle,said the death had crippled the family financially; his father was retired now. Twenty-four hours after the accident,the family regretted the way in which BARC,Mumbai Police and the government had handled his death.

The accident occurred at 12.30 pm,but it was not until 7.45 pm that we learnt about it from TV. We had a harrowing time finding out the victims identities. At 11.30 pm,we got to know from TV that one of the victims was Umang, said Udaypratap Singh,the husband of a maternal cousin.

And on Wednesday,Udaypratap said,the Trombay Police asked them to first get the young mans shattered parents to JJ Hospital for a blood test and DNA analysis.

At 6.30 pm on Wednesday,these procedures were still ongoing and the body hadnt been released,said Aditya,the husband of Umangs elder sister Sashi. Sashi,a professor at Kalina University,and Bina,Umangs other sister and a vice-principal at a local school,did not want to talk to the press.

He was a simple person, said Shishir Gupta,a neighbour. We had to work very hard to get him to agree to join us for a party we had planned for December 31.