Air India Airplane Crash: How Two Air Disasters, In 1988 And 2025, Shattered A Father’s World Twice
Ahmedabad: Saurin Palkhiwala stood immobile when the information flashed. Air India Flight 171 had crashed. For a second, time spun backwards. Thirty-seven years in the past, he had stood amid smouldering wreckage in the identical metropolis. Now, once more.
In 1988, he had misplaced somebody tied carefully to his household – Pradeep Harkishandas Dalal, his sister’s would-be father-in-law. On June 12 this yr, it was his daughter. Twenty-six-year-old Sanjana. A younger lady with desires, a level from New York and a ticket to London for a reunion.
“The second I noticed the information, one thing inside me froze. I didn’t want a affirmation. I knew. I simply knew,” mentioned Palkhiwala.
He left work. Picked up his spouse Sonali. Drove to Civil Hospital in silence. Hope flickered, briefly. Then pale.
Sanjana had been their solely youngster. Born 14 years after their marriage. A present, as they usually mentioned. A prayer answered. The house nonetheless carries her voice. Her work. Her books. Her vitality.
“She was vigorous. All the time curious, all the time variety. She beloved to bop. She beloved to prepare dinner. She wished to start out one thing of her personal. A meals model, perhaps,” Sonali whispered.
The couple had been planning her engagement. Now they sit quietly in a home that feels out of the blue too huge. On one wall, a collage of Sanjana’s childhood. On one other, her school convocation. In every single place, a presence that has develop into absence.
Her cousin, Saloni, mentioned they have been extra like sisters. “We spoke day by day. She had simply picked up tennis. She would ship me pictures of each new dish she tried. She beloved cricket. She beloved life.”
They now converse of her in previous tense. Slowly. With care.
“There isn’t any logic to this. We’re helpless earlier than destiny. Maybe, it was God’s resolution. She got here into our lives late. She left early,” Palkhiwala mentioned.
The household held her besna just lately. Guests walked in with folded fingers and lowered eyes. No one had the fitting phrases. As a result of there are none.
