A cancer survivor who had just visited a temple to pray for her ailing son, an IT employee on his way home from Howrah railway station, a young man headed for the Burrabazar wholesale market to stock up on goods for his shop. In the blood-stained debris of the Vivekananda Road flyover that collapsed on Thursday afternoon lie buried many untold stories of life abruptly cut short and families shattered beyond belief. Metro puts faces to the names of some of those who didn't return home.

Asha Joshi, 65

Resident of Baguiati

Was on her way from a temple to a dental clinic

Asha Joshi had survived breast cancer eight years ago, but challenges never seemed to fade from her life. She lost her husband in January and her younger son has been unwell for some time. And then came Thursday.

Asha had stepped out of home for the first time in months to visit a Kali temple and pray for son Sanjay, who is awaiting a crucial medical report.

She was to take an Indigo flight to Hyderabad at 8.30pm on Friday to see her elder son Sunil and wanted to visit the temple before leaving town. "My mother-in-law insisted on visiting the temple once before the medical report came," daughter-in-law Savitri said.

Asha had spoken to her granddaughter Rashmi over the phone after visiting the temple on Thursday and said that she was on her way to her dentist's clinic. "My aunt was visiting us and that is why I called my grandmother to find out when she would be back home," Rashmi said.

A resident of the Posta area recognised Asha trapped in the debris because she had lived in a house on Shibtala Street, close to the flyover, for many years before shifting to Baguiati in 2002.

He pulled her out and put her on an ambulance going to the Marwari Relief Society before informing her family in Baguiati of what had happened.

By the time son-in-law Pawan Haritwal reached the Marwari Relief Society, Asha had been shifted to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. "She was taken there for surgery but didn't survive it. Her left leg had to be amputated," he said.

On Friday morning, the family received a call from Calcutta Medical College and Hospital asking them to take away her amputated leg. "We cremated her on Thursday itself and now we are told that her limb is lying in the hospital. It is so painful just thinking about this," Pawan said.

Nirmal Kumar Singh, 25

Resident of Salt Lake

Had boarded a taxi at Howrah station to reach home

Nirmal Kumar Singh called his sister-in-law after getting into a prepaid taxi around 11.45am to tell her that he was on his way home. The 25-year-old Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employee didn't make it beyond Posta. The taxi he had boarded was among those that came under the flyover as a 40-metre span of the under-construction structure came down in a heap.

"He had told me that he would take around 30 to 45 minutes to reach home," recounted sister-in-law Sita Balmiki. "Who could have imagined that such a horrible thing would happen to him?"

Nirmal, a commerce graduate from Calcutta University, had joined TCS around a year ago. He was returning from a visit to his hometown Tundla, in Uttar Pradesh, when the tragedy occurred.

"Even if there is a traffic snarl in central Calcutta, it should not have taken him more than an hour to reach our home in Salt Lake. When it was past 1pm, I tried calling him but my calls either went unanswered or his mobile phone was unreachable," Sita said.

As the minutes ticked by, an increasingly anxious Sita called her mother-in-law Kamala Devi in UP and her husband Neeraj, who was at work, to enquire if Nirmal had called them. Neither had heard from him.

Neeraj, 30, was visiting a client around 3pm when he heard him asking someone else: "How many people are dead?"

The query immediately rang an alarm. "I asked my client what he was talking about and got to know that a flyover had collapsed at the Vivekananda Road-Rabindra Sarani crossing," Neeraj said.

He left for Girish Park immediately but entry to the crash site had been restricted by then. Neeraj tried Nirmal's phone again, only to find it switched off.

He spent the next two hours going from one hospital to another - first the Marwari Relief Society, then Calcutta Medical College and Hospital and from there to NRS Medical College and Hospital.

"I was constantly trying to connect to my brother's phone. At 5.45pm, someone took my call and introduced himself as a police officer. When I told him that the phone belonged to my brother, the officer gave me his name and asked me to come to Calcutta Medical College with Nirmal's identity proof," Neeraj said.

He headed for the hospital after asking a friend to visit his house in Salt Lake's KC Block to fetch Nirmal's employee ID card.

If Neeraj had been clinging to hope till then, the police officer's face gave away the news that awaited him. "I did not have the strength to ask the officer anything else... I identified my brother's body," Neeraj recalled.

Like any young man of his age, Nirmal was full of life and aspiration. He had bought a Honda Livo motorbike about two months ago.

"He would tell us that most of his colleagues owned bikes and so he wanted to buy one. After getting his salary, he would give it to our father, retaining a small amount for his own needs," Neeraj said. "He loved chicken curry and pulao ."

Till Friday afternoon, Neeraj hadn't told his parents, who had accompanied their younger son to Tundla but didn't return with him, about the tragedy. They only knew that he was in hospital.

Rajib Shaw, 36

Resident of Dum Dum Road

Was on his way to Burrabazar

Rajib was at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital when sister Ranjita spoke to him over the phone at 1.23pm.

"Pompa (her pet name), tui kothay, taratari aye, aami RG Kar-e...doctor amake 24 ghonta shomoy diyechhe (Where are you. Come fast. I am at RG Kar...the doctor has given me 24 hours)," Rajib told Ranjita before he fell silent.

Ranjita was then nearing the entrance to the hospital and could barely say: "Aami eshe gechhi (I am here)."

Rajib was unconscious when she reached his bed, the left portion of his body bandaged, his forehead swollen and face covered in a mask. He died shortly after.

"He could not see that I had reached the hospital. His eyes were shut. His last words still ring in my ears," said Ranjita, a dam of emotions waiting to burst forth.

Mother Jasodha stood by her side, silent.

Around 1pm, Ranjita had boarded a taxi in front of their house on Dum Dum Road, near Chiriamore, when someone her brother knew called to inform that he was in hospital.

Ranjita kept trying her brother's number on her way to RG Kar and finally got through to him at 1.23pm.

Rajib owned a shop selling cold drinks, cakes and ice-creams in the front portion of their house. The shop is the family's lone source of income.

On Thursday, Rajib had set out from his home around 11.30am to buy goods for his shop from Burrabazar. This was a routine for him ever since he started his business.

"I received a call from one of his friends saying that he was in hospital. My brother had apparently spoken to him and told him that he would be back home by 1pm, after which they were to meet," Ranjita quoted the man as saying.

He was the one either the police or the hospital authorities had contacted, based on his mobile phone number being the last one that Rajib had dialled.

"We do not know how he was pulled out from the debris or who pulled him out?" Ranjita said. "He had gone to buy goods for the shop and see where his fate took him."

Rajib is survived by his mother, two sisters and a younger brother. One of the sisters is married.

The 36-year-old was a popular face in his neighbourhood and would be involved in organising various community programmes. Decoration was something he liked doing during any occasion such as Puja.

"He was also very particular about how he looked and what he wore," mother Jasodha said.

Shabana Begum, 28

Resident of Colootola Street

Was on her way to her son's school

"Mere upar bridge gir gaya hai. Mujhe help karo (A bridge has collapsed over me. Help me!!)," Shabana Begum screamed into her phone as she lay buried under rubble.

She would call a second family member to repeat the plea, her voice becoming more feeble with each word.

Around 30 members of Shabana's extended family turned up at the crash site, made multiple rounds of hospitals carrying her photograph and asked anybody who would stop to listen if they had seen her.

Around 5.30am on Friday, a slab of concrete was removed to reveal a partially burnt body that was later confirmed as that of Shabana, a mother of two.

She had been on her way to Nopani High, a school near Girish Park, to pick up her seven-year-old son Abdul Maukib, when a portion of the flyover came crashing down. Her daughter Naushin Farooqi, a student of Welland Gouldsmith School, was at home when the tragedy occurred.

Abdul and Naushin have gone into a shell since being told of their mother's death. Brother-in-law Mohammad Salauddin, whom she had called first around 12.30pm on Thursday, is in shock, too.

"Salauddin could not understand what she was saying. Then her husband Sirazuddin called her back, but the phone was not reachable. A few minutes later, she called Sirazuddin and pleaded for help," Shabana's cousin Mohammed Aakib recounted.

Her brother Mohammed Nizamuddin, who was there at Vivekananda Road when her body was found on Friday, said the burns were possibly caused by a motorbike that caught fire. The concrete slab under which she had been trapped was resting on a generator.

Nizamuddin said he couldn't bear to think about how much pain his younger sister endured in her last moments. "I don't know how my niece and nephew are going to manage without their mother," he said, fighting back the tears.

He intends to file a criminal case against construction company IVRCL. "We couldn't save her but we will try our best to get her justice," Nizamuddin said.

THE TWENTY-THREE DEAD WHO HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED

The death toll in the flyover tragedy went up to 24 on Friday. Twenty-three of them have been identified, while one remained stuck in a truck under the debris till late on Friday. 

Till Friday midnight, 16 people were being treated in five city hospitals. Another 51 have been treated and discharged. The victims who have been identified

1. Shabana Begum, 28
W/o Shirazuddin Farooqi 
78 Maulana Saukat Ali Street, Calcutta 700073 

2. Shabuddin Islam, 32
S/o late Sk. Islam 
4 Chamru Khansama Lane,
Calcutta 700017 

3. Sunil Viswakarma, 45
S/o Lalchand Viswakarma 
365 Rabindra Sarani, 
Calcutta 700006 

4. Santosh Kumar Dubey, 50
S/o Vidyadhar Dubey 
Adarsha Nagar, Kanaipur, district Hooghly

5. Sadhan Mondal, 43 
S/o B. Mondal 
Sujapur, Kaliagunge, Nadia 

6. Sunil Dutta, 45 
S/o Vijay Dutta 
Jagadballavpur, Howrah 

7. Sunil Yadav, 45 
S/o Mathura Yadav 
Baksoti, Bihar 

8. Kaochhar Laskar, 57 
S/o Chaabi Laskar 
2 Uttar Sherdaha, Dakshin Purbapara, Diamond Harbour, South 24-Parganas 

9. Golap Mali, 57
S/0 Hari Mali 
17/1 Lalmadhab Mukherjee Lane, Calcutta 700007 

10. Samar Thakur, 60
S/o late K Thakur 
103 RD Street, Calcutta

11. Mahadeb Adak, 55
S/o late Tinkari Adak 
12/1 Brajanath Lahiri Lane, 
Santragachhi, Howrah

12. Rajib Shaw, 36 
S/o Biswanath Shaw
1/1H/26 Dum Dum Road,
Calcutta 700002 

13. Sujit Debnath, 32 
S/o Sukumar Debnath 
Gayeshpur, Kalyani, Nadia 

14. Sanjay Mehrotra, 50
49B Ramdulal Sarkar Street, 
Calcutta- 700006 

15. Tapan Dutta, 58
S/o K C Dutta 
28 Tagore Castle Street,
Calcutta 700006 

16. Asha Joshi, 65 
W/o late Satyanarayan Joshi 
DD 37A Narayantala East, Baguiati, Calcutta 700059 

17. Prakash Dhali, 35 
S/o Netai Dhali 
Bansboria, Haringhata, Nadia 

18. Ajoy Kr Kondai, 48
S/o Jagadish Prasad Kondai 
26 PK Tagore Street, Calcutta 700005 

19. Sarita Kondai, 45
W/o Ajoy Kumar Kondai 
26 PK Tagore Street, Calcutta 700005 

20. Gajendra Sethia, 32
S/o Kundan Lal Sethia 
207 MD Road, 
Calcutta 700007 

21. Jatan Yadav, 55 
S/o Hari Yadav 
35/A/1/1B Bethune Row, 
Calcutta 700006 

22. Md Ramjani, 25 
S/o Seikh Mustafa 
47 MM Burman Street, 
Calcutta 700007 

23. Nirmal Kumar Singh, 25 
S/o Lalan Singh Balmiki 
KC-22, Sector III, Salt Lake,
Calcutta 700098

The state government on Friday announced that Rs 5 lakh would be given to each of the next of kin of those killed in the flyover collapse. The seriously injured will get Rs 2 lakh each and those who have suffered minor injuries Rs 1 lakh each. 

A statement issued by the government said 24 people have died and 67 have been rescued.

HELPLINES

Calcutta police: 22143024 / 9432624365
Disaster management control room numbers round the clock: 1070, 22535185, 22143526 / 5664; fax: 22141378