Yugantar Rana

Kalimpong, May 24: Pachimi Rana is yet to come to terms with the death of her elder son Yugantar in the Mangalore air crash, but she is going through another ordeal with the body yet to be identified and uncertainty remaining over the number of days it would take for the DNA test results to come out.

The 26-year-old steward’s fledgling career was cut short in mid-flight when the ill-fated Air India Express Boeing 737-800 crashed at Mangalore airport on Saturday, killing 158 people.

Yugantar’s brother Rupantar is away in Mangalore to identify the body. He telephoned his mother last night and told her that he was unable to identify the body.

“She couldn’t believe her ears when Rupantar told her that he was unable to identify Yugantar’s body. She has told him to do whatever it takes and return home with the body,” said a family friend.

The Ranas will have to wait for some more time — till the DNA tests are over —before they can get their loved one home for one last time.

The Ranas initially heard about the plane crash from television news.

“Even though the news reports were saying that the majority of people in the plane were feared killed, we were praying for Yugantar. Later, however, his office called and gave the shattering news about his death,” said the friend.

A student of Dr Graham’s Homes here and St Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, Yugantar, friends said, had always wanted to join the aviation sector and was thrilled when he had landed the job with Air India.

“He was my childhood friend. Even though he came from a privileged background, he didn’t have any airs about it. He was a very grounded person, and used to mingle with one and all,” said Avik Das, a friend of Yugantar.

Other friends The Telegraph spoke to also had only good things to say about the young man. Yugantar used to live with his family at their Rinkingpong Road residence. He has also a married elder sister. His late father C. B. Rana was the principal of Kumudini Homes in Kalimpong. Rupantar pursues engineering in a Calcutta college.

If his life had not been cut short so cruelly, Yugantar would have come home for holiday during Dasain in the middle of October.

“He was last here in February. And the last time he spoke to his mother was just before boarding the plane in Dubai. He was a loving kid and used to keep in regular touch with his family,” said the family friend.