Relatives of the Nepal plane crash victims returned here on Wednesday, bringing with them the mortal remains of their loved ones.
Fifteen people, including 13 Indians, were killed instantaneously when a Dornier 228 aircraft belonging to Agni Air crashed en route from Pokhara to the perilously situated Jomsom airport. Eight were from Mumbai, including the prominent child star Taruni Sachdev. An ambulance was waiting at the cargo office of the Sahar International Airport to collect their remains.
While some of the bereaved found it hard to reconcile themselves to the tragedy, some others displayed remarkable equanimity. Haresh Sachdev, Taruni's father, was utterly inconsolable, having lost his wife Geeta and daughter in one stroke.
Actor Amitabh Bachchan, with whom young Taruni co-starred in the 2009 film Paa , has written a heartfelt condolence letter to the Sachdev family, remarking that “Taruni was an exceptional child… full of confidence and a huge of amount of talent, hitherto unseen.”
Similarly, sisters Vidhi and Prerna Arora, who lost their parents and their younger brother Shiv, found it hard to accept the grim reality that had shattered their nuclear family.
The remains of Krishna Chaitanya Das, the thirty-year-old priest at an Iskcon temple in South Mumbai, will be taken to Hyderabad where the final rites are expected to be performed tomorrow.
Despite having to negotiate the cumbersome paperwork following such events, relatives were generally thankful to the Embassy authorities for their cooperation. “The Indian Embassy was most helpful. We finished the formalities by 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday,” said Gopal Gaur Das, a fellow priest at the temple who had gone to collect his friend's body.
Speaking to The Hindu at the airport, R. Vijaykumar Ramanujadasa, Krishna's father, said he had spoken to his son on his iPad only that Sunday. “It was good to see him in good health then. He even gave me a missed call the next day before boarding his plane to Jomsom,” he said.
