Hundreds of people congregated at a prayer meeting for senior Times of India journalist Sabina Sehgal Saikia, held at the Chinmaya Mission on Lodhi Road on Wednesday. She was killed in the Mumbai terror attacks while staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Indian classical music, which family members said Sabina loved, played in the background during the prayer ceremony.

Apart from being the food critic for the Times of India, she was also closely involved with SPICMACAY.

“She indeed created Page 3, and what she later termed as the monstrosities of Page 3,” Sunil Sethi, journalist and friend, said while remembering Sabina, who launched the city supplement Delhi Times.

“But there were many other facets to her. It took her many years to reach where she was,” he said.

He recalled one of the last conversations he had with her: “She was compiling the Times of India food guide before she left for Mumbai. She told me she was stuck on the letter ‘S’, as so many restaurants started with that letter. I told her her name also started with the same letter.

“Initially, she worked as a legal correspondent but also wrote food reviews, which she joked, had the judges wondering about her girth!”

In attendance were senior journalists Vikram Chandra, Chandan Mitra, fashion designers Manav Gangwani, Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar and industrialist V N Dalmia, among others.