Neighbours, residents, passersby throng the area, almost as if a spectacle is unfolding outside. But for Zaibunisa and her family, the crowd only adds to the tragedy -- having lost four daughters in one day. While she is too shocked to react, her neighbours try to console her, whispering in hushed tones: ``She is not quite normal.''

The day has taken its toll on all of them. The family received news of the tragedy on Sunday evening; four daughters, their cousin and a girl residing nearby -- all of them drowned off the Alibaug coast on Sunday, where they had gone for a picnic. They were accompanied by three boys, two of whom survived. Residents say the bodies of the youngest, Hayatunisha, the girl staying nearby, Raila (19), and the boy GhulamRabani (23), were recovered today.

Calling to relatives to come down -- to the place where the corpses have been kept -- the father, Ansari Mehmood, looks dazed. ``My mind is not working today... I cannot think...,'' he says. Ansari, who is unemployed, is running around, busying himself with funeral preparations to help him forget.

In a corner of the room -- that used to house the entire family -- the girls' grandfather lies huddled in a cot. After everyone has gone down, the 104-year-old, who is battling cancer, lies alone in his room, peering speechlessly at the people coming and going. The girls' grandmother also lives with them. So do Zaibunisa's three sons. The fourth, who works in Dubai, will return home today.

Neighbours say the girls had left for Alibaug on Sunday, only telling the family that they were leaving for a picnic. No one knows anything about the boys who accompanied them. They presume they were college friends. The group had gone to Kolaba Killa, a fort in Alibaug.

The eldestdaughter, Tashturnisha (28), was a beautician, while the second, Reshmatunisha (21) was doing her post-graduation in Urdu at the University of Mumbai. The third daughter, Muftarunisha (17), had passed her SSC two years ago, and the youngest, Hayatunisha (14), was in Std IX.

At around 4 pm on Sunday, the family received a call saying the girls had drowned off the Alibaug coast. ``The police found a college identity card of one of the girls, and they telephoned the family and asked the father to go there to confirm,'' a neighbour told Express Newsline. Ansari Mehmood did not even know that the girls had gone to Alibaug, he adds. Only three corpses had been recovered then. After identifying the bodies, the father returned to the city and broke the news to his family.

Today, the family is struggling to accept the truth. One of the brothers, Riyad, walks outside the tent, red-eyed, even as someone shouts for gloves, which they need to wash the corpses: ``Get eight or nine big ones.'' The neighbours arepitching in but the crowd is unmanageable. Ropes are tied to keep people away. Says a neighbour: ``As soon as the elder brother comes, we shall take the bodies to the cemetery.''