“It’s time! I have to leave for work.” Those were the last words of Raghavendran Ganeshan, minutes before he boarded the train at Maalbeek station in the heart of Brussels. “The CCTV footage shows he was one of the last people to board the train. He stood next to the suicide bomber. Minutes after he boarded, the bomb went off,” said his relative Ravi Kumar Venkatramanan, who is based out of Chennai.
He was born here in Chennai, raised in Mumbai and again returned to do his engineering course at a private college in Vaniyambadi, Vellore district.
“He was such a fine human being, soft-spoken and multi-talented. He was a topper in our college. I can’t believe he is no more,” said Logesh Waran, a classmate of Ganeshan while in college, who currently lives at Reno in the United States. Ganeshan left for Belgium four years ago to work on an Infosys project.
Ganeshan married Vaishali two years ago. The couple’s wedding anniversary was just a week ago, Mr. Venkatramanan said. “Vaishali couldn’t spend much time with him. It was only about eight months after they got married that she could join him at Brussels owing to visa-related issues. She stayed there for only about six months. Vaishali later came back to Chennai for her delivery,” he added.
For those seven days he was missing, Vaishali was the strongest amongst her relatives and was hopeful that he was alive. P. Balasubramanian, brother-in-law of Ganeshan, said, “She would say ‘why are they looking for him in the wrong places. I’m sure he must be taking treatment somewhere.’ I don’t know how long it will take for her to come to terms with it,” he added.
