If we could give him a proper funeral, that would be enough

NEW DELHI, July 2: It was like a playback of a similar tragedy that occurred on a sunny morning seven and a half months ago. A school bus ha...

NEW DELHI, July 2: It was like a playback of a similar tragedy that occurred on a sunny morning seven and a half months ago. A school bus had careened off the Wazirabad Bridge and into the River Yamuna. Thirty young lives were snuffed out within minutes.

On Wednesday, at the very same spot, four young recreational swimmers were sucked into the Yamuna. On the embankment, less than 24 hours later, the scene was familiarly funereal. The tears and the intense grief were replaced by an eerie calm as relatives waited and watched, hoping against hope that the next time the divers surfaced, they would come bearing the body of their child.

One lingering memory of the school bus tragedy is that of the elder brother of one of the 30 children who perished. Each time the divers surfaced, he would be woken up from his stupor. Only to be disappointed. (His brother’s body was eventually among the last two found, almost 48 hours later). The elder boy sat silently, staring across the water. His friends were with him and as media persons came up to speak to him time and time again, he would answer their often cliched (“What does it feel to lose a loved one?”), often insensitive (“Do you still harbour the hope that your brother is alive, having swum across to the other bank?”) questions with patience that his inquisitors seemed to take for granted.

It was no different today. Victim Devender’s father sat with a couple of his friends on the river bank steps. Media persons trooped up to him with the same set of questions. He answered them patiently and without the slightest trace of bitterness: “What hope is there now? If we find his body and give him a decent funeral, that would be more than enough.” There are many familiar faces among the policemen, divers and local fishermen. “I think we’ve met some time ago?” one of the media persons asked a young Navy officer supervising the divers. “Yes, I was there. Your faces also look familiar,” he said. There was no need to mention where or when the meeting took place.