A BIOLOGY graduate from UP who moved to her uncle’s home in Delhi to chase her dreams; a JNU research student from Kerala who had quietly signed up for civil services coaching; an IAS aspirant who missed her parents in Telangana so much that she called them every day.
On Saturday evening, these three lives, and their stories, crossed paths in the basement of the popular Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar — for the last time. A day later, long after the heavy rains and water from the broken drain that engulfed the coaching centre’s basement had subsided, all that remained were the lifeless bodies and memories of Shreya Yadav (25), Nivin Dalwin (28) and Tanya Soni (25). And the grief of their parents, and the despair that shrouded everyone who knew them.
“Maybe, it was written that her life would end here,” said Dharmendra Yadav, Shreya’s uncle with whom she was staying in Ghaziabad. Devastated, and weary from a night waiting in front of the mortuary at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, he said, “We just want to take her body back to our village.”
Recalling the growing dread and frantic calls after coming to know about the incident on TV, Yadav said, “I called Shreya, she did not answer. I rushed to the institute, it wasn’t clear whether anyone was stuck inside the library in the basement or not. I then went to her PG nearby and found the door locked. I called her friends, but they were not able to reach her… Later, we got the call from the police.”
Shreya hailed from Barsawa Hashimpur village in Ambedkar Nagar and was the second of three children of Rajendra Yadav, who runs a dairy outlet, and Shanti Devi. After completing her BSc in biology from a college in Sultanpur, she joined the IAS coaching institute this year and was preparing for her first attempt at the entrance examination. “She came to Delhi full of aspirations and big dreams,” said her cousin.
Students Protesting after two female students were found dead after the basement of Rau’s IAS, a UPSC coaching centre in Rajendra Nagar, was flooded following a nearby drain burst on Sunday (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Speaking to The Indian Express from their village, Shreya’s elder brother Abhishek Yadav said, “We were sure she would clear the UPSC examination because she had an impressive academic record and a passion for becoming an IAS officer. My father took a bank loan to pay her fees.” The family last spoke to Shreya on Friday. “We discussed what she would do after completing her coaching in December,” said Abhishek, adding that their younger brother is in Class 7.
Back at the mortuary in Delhi were also students and professors from JNU, waiting to identify the body of Nivin Dalwin. “We never knew he had enrolled for IAS coaching. We found out this morning,” said a friend, adding that Dalwin was pursuing a PhD in visual studies.
At Malayattoor in Kerala, where Dalwin’s family is based, his parents were admitted to a local hospital after complaining of uneasiness on hearing about his death.
According to a family friend, Dalwin’s mother Lancelet, a professor at the Sanskrit University, was returning home from church when she came to know about the incident. “She was checking her mobile phone for missed calls. It was when she returned one of those calls that she came to know about the tragedy,” said Betty, a family friend. Dalwin’s father Suresh is a retired police officer and his younger sister Nessy an assistant professor at a local college.
“On Friday, Lancelet had called her son to ask about the heavy rains in Delhi. She knew he would be in the library on Saturday for his PhD thesis. But even on Sunday morning, they did not know about the tragedy,” said Betty. “Lancelet used to tell us that her Sunday prayers were meant for dedicating her son’s civil services dream to God.”
The third phone call from Delhi went to Tanya Soni’s father Vijay Kumar, a deputy general manager at Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) who hails from Secunderabad. At the time, Kumar, his wife, and another daughter were on their way to Lucknow in a train. “Tanya had big dreams and was highly motivated. She graduated from Delhi University and had decided to pursue UPSC… She used to call home every day,” Kumar said.
“We are devastated. We are also troubled thinking about the way she died. I have no words to express how I feel,” he said.
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