Memories rush back to haunt Vivek’s widow

LUCKNOW: Five days after the murder of Apple sales executive Vivek Tiwari, his family is yet to recover from the cruel blow fate has dealt them.

On Thursday, Vivek’s widow Kalpana Tiwari fainted while talking to the family members about the incident that turned her life upside down.

“She is not eating enough despite our constant efforts and is only talking about Jijaji. She was speaking about him when she fainted today,” said Kalpana’s brother Vishnu Shukla. “We called doctors who examined her and advised rest,” he added.

Apart from lack of rest, the doctors diagnosed rise in Kalpana’s blood pressure. According to family members, she has not slept for more than two hours at a stretch since Saturday. The doctors gave her a sedative to put her to sleep and said she should not be disturbed.

Vivek Tiwari was shot dead in cold blood by a UP police constable in Vibhuti Khand of posh Gomti Nagar area in Lucknow on Friday night. The family didn’t really get a chance to mourn till Tuesday, as politicians, social workers, journalists and officials kept visiting them. When the crowd finally drew back, memories came rushing in.

“She spent the entire Tuesday sitting with her daughters, yet she complained of feeling lonely,” Vishnu said. “She snubbed me when we I tried to remove Jijaji’s old clothes and said that she wanted the house to remain just the way it was when he left,” he added with moist eyes.

Though Kalpana’s younger daughter Shivanshi, 7, is too young to understand ‘death’, the loss of her father is crushing for the elder daughter Priyanshi, 12.

“We have told Shivanshi that papa has gone out for a few days for some office work. We are more worried about Priyanshi who has become very quiet and barely speaks to anyone besides her mother,” Vishnu said.

The family members tried to invite some of Priyanshi’s friends. “We are also trying to speak to her but it seems that it will take her some time to open up,” said Vishnu.

The daughters have also not attended school after the incident. Their teachers visited them on Tuesday.

Kalpana has restricted herself to one of the bedrooms while the other room with a television has been occupied by women relatives.

The television remains on throughout the day. The volume, however, has been kept muted since Wednesday.

“We are following the news to be updated about the investigation of our case. It hurts when Vivek’s image is flashed on TV but we have to face it if we want justice,” said a woman relative.