Stench of death, unfulfilled dreams...

A culvert, just a few kilometres from Mandaal headquarters at Kothapet and the surrounding area on NH-44, which links Hyderabad with Bangalore, wore a pathetic look on Wednesday.

The sight of a charred luxury coach and luggage strewn on the accident site was a grim reminder of how Deepawali turned sour for many families, with their young members losing their lives. The dead included people who were returning home from Bangalore for Deepawali. A few others were software professionals, who were shifting to Hyderabad for a better career.

Cosmetics, utensils, flowers, fruit and gunny bags, all partially burnt, were being shifted to tents set up in the adjacent fields. The police also set up a few more tents to shelter kin of the deceased and a huge contingent of mediapersons and VIPs.

In one of the three tents were kept charred remains of the passengers. Parents fighting tears were trying to identify their children. The nauseating stench of charred flesh told the story of the ill-fated travellers.

The partially burnt biodata and certificates of a software engineer, A Ravi (27), were spotted on the road. He was coming to Hyderabad to join Accenture. Ravi, from Narsipatnam in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, was working in Bangalore.

According to Ravi’s friends, he was waiting for an offer letter from another multinational company in Bangalore. Since it was delayed, he decided to join Accenture in Hyderabad.

N Roohia, an employee of Info Technologies, was another young software professional to have died in the tragedy. She had gone to Bangalore for some work. Another victim was identified as K Vedapati (27), from Nizamabad district and a bank accountant in Bangalore, who was coming home to celebrate Deepawali. He was married in November last year.

Akshay Singh (28), another software engineer, was to have returned home on October 26 for his birthday. But he postponed the trip to celebrate Deepawali with his family in Hyderabad. A pall of gloom descended on his house at Chikkadpally in Hyderabad after the news of his death reached his family.