Colleagues, family members mourn crash deaths

Colleagues, family members mourn crash deaths
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Calcutta, July 18: The office of Nicholas Piramal India Ltd in Beleghata area of east Calcutta wore a sombre look this morning as its puffy-eyed employees answered phone queries on the tragic demise of their general manager.

The G M (East) of the company for 32 years B R Sen, who boarded the doomed CD 7412 Alliance Air flight here on Monday morning, was a man with `awesome energy and great determination' for all his men.

Sitting by Sen's garlanded photograph, an ex-employee of NPIL and his close associate A Chatterjee, mechanically chalked out plans for the day after a sleepless night.

"The body will first be brought to this office and all of you can pay your last respects. It will then go in a procession for the cremation ," he was heard repeating to the hundreds of people making a beeline to inquire of Sen's whereabouts.

The scene was no different at the tall central Calcutta edifice of Usha Martin, which lost its dashing CEO (infrastructure services) Maj Gen (retd) S C Gupta to the mishap.

Gupta, who after retiring from the Army had joined the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) as its chairman, was better known as the driving force behind Usha Martin Telekom's 1995 presence in Calcutta

"He served the company for seven years and proved beyond doubt that he could face any given challenge in the true spirit of an armyman," GM, coordination in the company and his army compatriot for long years Col S Rath said in the same breath as he confirmed on his cellphone Gupta's son's arrival here from the US.

During his long stint with the Army, Gupta commanded an Army base operation in Meerut on the overhauling of East European defence systems and also led a guided missiles equipment procurement team to Russia in 1977.

"The bereavement will cost us heavily... His sudden demise will be a massive blow to the company," Rath said adding it would be difficult to fill up the void with someone as `meticuluous and enterprising'.

Gupta's body kept at the Army command hospital here saw a steady stream of people, Armymen and civilian alike, prior to the funeral scheduled tomorrow.

All the departed were, however, not as lucky, even in death. The body of Nepali air-hostess Priyanki Newar, killed in the crash, lay forlorn at the Peace Heaven Church in central Calcutta with a few acquaintances keeping guard till her parents arrive here from far-off Garo Hills in Assam.

Twenty-seven-year old Newar and colleague air-hostess Pushpa, who shared a Mall Road flat in north Calcutta, also embraced death together. "We will decide on the cremation only after her parents and the brother Dhanu come from Guwahati," Newar's grief-stricken cousin Minto said.