The joy of a family wedding gave way to a long wait outside the morgue at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital for the family and friends of the Rathis.
They were waiting for the post-mortem to be completed.
The same people who were celebrating a joyous occasion hours before stood silent and sullen, reacting angrily even if someone condoled with them.
“Please leave us alone,” a young man said on Monday afternoon.
Another relative snapped over the phone: “I cannot speak now.”
Not surprising, given the tragic turn of events.
The bodies of Kamala Rathi, 73, Shivshankar Rathi, 54,and Shrivatsa Rathi, 23, were being cut open for an autopsy inside.
The day before, all three and the rest were enjoying a family wedding.
Shivshankar had a son and a daughter.
A neighbour of the Rathis at the Aurobindo Abasan housing complex in Maniktala told Metro: “They were so happy even a few hours ago and today they will return home as bodies. This is unimaginable.”
Another neighbour, Manas Bhuniya, blamed the police for not being able to stop on time the bus that smashed into the car in which the Rathis were travelling.
Police said the speeding bus, which had allegedly been stolen, hit their car from behind at a traffic light in Lake Town.
Many in the neighbourhood recalled Shrivatsa’s early years.
“He was brilliant in studies and won several awards. We were so proud of him. He was doing his MBA,” said Narayan Das, a neighbour.
A cousin told this newspaper: “Shrivatsa did his graduation from St Xavier’s College. His elder sister, who got married yesterday, is a doctor. Her husband is doctor, too.”
Shrivatsa’s father Shivshankar ran a business of electrical equipment. “His office was at Poddar Court,” said a relative, Kaushal Dujari.
Some of the neighbours went to the Rathis’ apartment around 4.30am, immediately after they heard someone wailing inside.
The bodies of the three members of the Rathi family were brought home later in the evening after the post-mortem was completed.
“It is a black day in the history of our housing complex. We have 160 families here. No one has cooked anything at home today. We were part of a large family,” said neighbour Bhuniya.
