For the family of Umang Singh (24), a research fellow who died in a blaze at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on Tuesday, it is the end of a dream.
The Singhs, natives of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, live in a chawl on Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road. His father, Uday Narayan, works in a
mill and the family banked on Singh to fulfil their aspirations.
A friend Sunil Mishra remembered their college days when Singh could not even afford to buy books and borrowed them from friends.
“He used to study under a street lamp at night as the family lived in a one-room house,” said Mishra.
The boy who failed his Class 12 exams the first time went on to bag the top rank in the Masters’ in Science course. He took up research at BARC three years ago and was to finish it this March.
His sisters, Shashi (34) and Beena (27), are educationists. Another friend, Asish Vishwakarma, said that the siblings helped each other and the sisters took care of Singh’s education. “Beena is pregnant. The news has shattered her,” said Vishwakarma.
Mishra wanted to spend New Year’s Eve with his close friend. “But Umang said he would not be able to join me because of his busy schedule,” said Mishra.
The family was upset with BARC as they came to know about the incident from the media and not the authorities.
At least 115 km from Kolkata, in the hamlet of Narendrapur in Namkhana, another family mourned the death of their son, Partha Bag (26) who died with Singh in the blaze.
Villagers remembered him as a boy who made it big though he came from an obscure hamlet of farmers and fishermen.
His father, Deboprasad, owns three ice manufacturing units in Namkhana. Bag passed his higher secondary exam from the lone school in his village.
“He was unlike all of us from the beginning,” said Atindranath Hajra, Bag’s maternal cousin. “They [the family] had plenty of money and Partha could have spent his life managing his father’s business. But his father encouraged him to study further.”
Bag’s family has many questions about his death. “We are not satisfied about the situation under which my brother died but we do not want to talk about this right now,” said Piali, Bag’s sister. The family is in Mumbai to collect his body.