Hopes washed away in a quarry pit

An earthen lamp was lit in mourning near the coffin. A few metres away from her son’s body, a drunken brawl had broken out.

Harish’s mother Palaniyamma was trying in vain to convince the inebriated youth to save their fisticuffs for another day. The unmindful bunch was bent on settling scores. Harish’s sister clung on to the coffin in shock. Sitting on a chair nearby was Anandan, his father, fighting back his tears.

Here, in a humble household in a bylane of Ganga Nagar, not far away from the CBI Main Road, a life was lost and a family’s dream snuffed out. Anandan, a daily wage labourer, and Palaniyamma, a house help, wanted to see their son as an engineer. 

Harish was among the five students of Sri Revana Siddeshwara Institute of Technology, Chikkajala, who drowned in an abandoned quarry pit on Thursday. Three among the five were students from the City, while the other two were from Nepal. 

Harish was a shy boy. A very soft-natured person, who was not interested in anything else apart from cricket and studies. In fact, he scored a distinction, said his school friend Kaushik. Harish had also won the Man of the Match award in a cricket match held in Presidency College last week, according to his friend.

Shattered dreams

The families of all the three students from the City come from humble background. Nanda Kumar and Arun Chandra Shetty were the other two students who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident on Thursday. Kumar’s father Ramesh is a lab technician and Arun’s father a taxi driver. All three families were on cloud nine two years ago when their children got into engineering.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Ramesh said: “When I enrolled him in the college, I thought that the years of struggle in bringing up my children had paid off. I thought my life would be filled with only happiness from now on.” Kumar could swim well, said his father. He is survived by a younger brother and his parents.

Similar was the scene at Arun Chandra’s house. His father Chandrashekar Shetty is a taxi driver. Arun’s younger brother, who has just finished his second PU exams, was unable to come to terms with his brother’s death. Not knowing how to deal with it, he simply lay on the cot shutting his eyes, even as his mother’s inconsolable sobs rang in his ears.
‘How many more lives?’

All the three families demanded justice in unison. Arun Chandra’s mother Jyothi demanded that the government immediately prohibit the public from entering the quarry and erect fences around the place. “Today this happened to my son. Tomorrow it could happen to anyone else. When will the government wake up?”