Father recollects son's death

SIXTY TWO kilometres from Telangana state capital in a small village in Medak district on Wednesday morning Jatkula Yadgiri was doing his routine job. Seeing off his three children to school before leaving for work. Little did he know that it was the last time he was seeing them. His three children Sirisha (8), Divya (6) and Charan (3) were in the ill-fated school bus which met with an accident when a train  heading to Secunderabad from Nanded rammed into it killing fourteen school children. All of them were primary students.
Yadgiri recalled," how he had a chat with his eldest daughter last night.accident., Yadagiri recalled," how he had a chat with his eldest daughter last night. We just got a call from the hospital informing us about our son’s death,” he said as he burst out into tears. He had got a call from Sirisha’s headmaster who complained of her not finishing her homework but was performing well in school. “She assured me that she would give her best henceforth,” he said weeping uncontrollably. “She asked me not to worry and judge her only by her grades,” he added. Yadgiri is a lower-middle agricultural labour. “Despite my low income, I sent my children to a private school as they were my most precious assets,” he said. While Sirisha wanted to become a teacher, Divya a doctor, his son Charan dreamed of becoming a policeman. “I often wondered how I would be able to provide so much for them. I had taken loans from many people to ensure good education for them. There were times when people barged into my house demanding money but it never perturbed me as the only thing I ever had in mind were my kids,” the bereaved father said. He recalled how Charan was delighted when he had brought Khajoor (dates) instead of the usual bananas. Yadgiri, however, had anticipated the mishap. “My children often complained about the rash driving of the driver. Even I had gone to their school and lodged a complaint many times and requested the management to do something about the crossing. At least now I hope they do something about it,” he regretted. While Yadagiri and his wife are at their house mourning over the bodies of their two dead children, their eldest daughter Sirisha has been brought by some relatives to the Yashoda hospital in Secunderabad for treatment. She is in a deep shock and does not know that her younger brother and sister are no more in this world. Her only concern is to get well and return home and play with her siblings, according to Satyalaxmi, a relative, who is looking after her in the absence of her parents. “We are having a tough time convincing her that her brother and sister are safe. We told her that they both are outside the hospital and that very soon she can meet them. She believed what we said. But I don’t know how to handle the situation once she knows the truth. “I don’t know how many years it will take for the family to recover from this shock of this tragedy,” she said with tears in her eyes. Harish, a four-year- old LKG student lost one leg in that train accident. He is safe and now being treated. His uncle Srikanth was seen trying hard to console his family members at the hospital. When asked about the condition of Harish, he said: “I can never see my nephew walking again. He lost his one leg, and the lower part of his body was damaged.