Departed leave vacuum among kin

Suraj got a call on Monday afternoon from his sister-in-law Priya, who was in Katra with her family, that an accident has happened there. She had barely finished her sentence when the phone got disconnected, sending the family in a state of worry.

“I got a call around 1.30 pm from bhabhi who was talking about an accident, and was barely audible when her mother disconnected the phone. We thought that someone had got injured during their pilgrimage of Vaishno Devi. All the attempts thereafter to contact my brother went futile… we were very tense and expecting a bad news,’’ said thirty-year-old Suraj Solanki.

The family lives in northwest Delhi in Pooth Khurd village near Rohini. “I put down the phone and switched on the television set. As I tuned in a news channel, a helicopter carrying pilgrims being crashed near the Vaishno Devi shrine was flashing on the screen. My worst fear turned real, and I slumped on my chair,” he added.

Sachin Solanki, 32, one of the seven victims who died in the helicopter crash on Monday. He was the elder of the two sons of Jagdish Solanki, a retired MCD employee.

Living in a middle class joint family, Sachin, worked his way up to become a manager in an IT company in Noida.

“He was a very hard working person, and used to travel around 100 km to and fro every day for his work. Earlier he wanted to become a civil servant but after marriage started concentrating on IT field only,” said Shakti Solanki, cousin of Sachin.

The whole Solanki family is a devotee of Vaishno Devi, and had been there numerous times in the past. “Sachin was a god-fearing person who would do his prayers every day before venturing out for his work. It’s a tragedy that he had to die on pilgrimage,” said Suraj.

The whole family is trying to come to terms with the loss of Sachin. However, the death of his six-year-old daughter Akshita is something which is hitting them the most.

“She was an angel, like her father she was also very intelligent and used to keep all of us on our toes by asking questions related to different things in the world. It’s hard to forget her face,’’ he added.

Sachin has left behind his wife, Priya, 30, and three-year-old son Ayaan. According to the family members, Priya has been unconscious ever since she returned from Katra.

Ayaan though is unaware about the happenings but is missing his father and sister.
“We are telling Ayaan that his father has gone for work with his sister and will return after some days,” said a cousin.