On any other day Balachandran Nair would have loved to watch his one-year-old grandson Krishnanand playing on his lap.
But on Saturday he was crestfallen and inconsolable. For, a few feet away, placed on a table, under the cover of silpaulin sheets to keep the pelting rain at bay, was the body of five-year-old Krishnendu, his other grandchild.
He was restless as he sat for a minute and then strolled around the house the next moment with the little one not knowing what to do.
But that only deepened his pain as his attention was drawn to the small hole being dug for the last resting place of his beloved granddaughter.
The modest house of Abheesh and Varsha at Injoor did not have enough space to accommodate all those who thronged it to pay last respects to their elder daughter, who was one of the five victims of the accident at Nellimattom.
But people kept on coming and they stuck around braving rains and the lack of space as they found the tragedy far too moving to bother about anything else.
Rameshan Nair, Balachandran’s brother, was a lonely figure, as he cried his heart out at the back of the house with his head against the wall.
He had come to know about the devastating news only by midnight. “She was very much attached to me..,” as his words petered out and he slipped into sobs yet again.
