WISH MY SON HAD COME HOME ONCE LAST YEAR: VICTIM’S MOTHER

RAE BARELI (UNCHAHAR): Phulwai has been crying incessantly ever since she heard the news of her 27-year-old son’s death in the boiler blast at NTPC plant.

A resident of B had aura village in Madhya Pradesh, the woman wishes her elder son, Ram Ratan Patel, had come home at least once last year.

“His marriage was fixed for next month. Maybe he was saving for it. For the past one year, he had not come home. I told him several times to visit us for a few days. I never knew he would leave me forever,” Phulwai said.

“We received a phone call from my son’s colleague yesterday evening (Wednesday). We did not know that he was dead. After travelling overnight, we managed to come here only to see his lifeless body wrapped in a cloth,” said Kamlesh, the deceased’s father.

Back home, a pall of gloom also descended on the village of his would-be daughter-in-law. “Her condition is really bad. She is inconsolable,” said Ram’s brother Naresh.

Also grieving a few yards away is Uma Devi of Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district who lost her husband Pawan. “I spoke to him over phone on Wednesday afternoon. He was about to leave for the shift. I never thought I was talking to him for the last time or I would have stopped him from going to work,” said an inconsolable Uma.

She married Pawan last year and the couple was planning a family, a relative who accompanied her said.

We received a phone call from my son’s colleague last evening (Wednesday). After travelling overnight, we managed to come here only to see his lifeless body wrapped in a cloth. KAMLESH PATEL, Ram’s father