a‘Bach gaya toh kal college main milta hun’

“I spoke to him on the night he died; we spoke last at 2.30 am. His battery was low and he was scared and tired,” recalls Manpreet Dhody,18, a first year student of the same course.

“The last thing he told me was ‘agar bach gaya toh kal college main milta hu; bus can’t stay here any more, hopefully we should be rescued soon’.”

Dhody is devastated and cannot stop her tears. Accompanied by friends, she went to Gautam’s Khar residence to pack up his stuff. “We plan to keep a few memories and return the rest to his parents when they come to the college,” she said.

The last hours of Singh, while he was trapped at the Taj were recounted to Dhody and the rest of the 3rd year students of HAFT who were with Gautam in the main kitchen at Taj but survived.

According to the accounts, Singh was instrumental in rescuing the kitchen staff, among them his juniors from college. Soon after the rescue began at 4.30 am on Thursday, two groups of hostages were formed, each led by Army personnel. The first group was out safely. Gautam was in the second group when his friend was hit by one of the bullets fired by a terrorist who spotted them while they were sneaking out.

Gautam had stopped, stunned. It was then that he was hit twice — once in the shoulder and once in the arm — by the same terrorist. Singh fell and the terrorist came closer. On seeing him alive, he shot him once more in his thigh whereupon the bullet lodged itself in an artery bursting it open.

The group made it out of the hotel at 6.30 am but Gautam was badly hurt. “We did not know which hospital he had been taken to,” says Dhodhy. After repeatedly calling, it was learnt through a blood bank at JJ that a victim named Gautam was there.

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