When National Security Guard chief J K Dutt was directing commando operations outside the Taj, one of his relatives was trapped inside.

Rajeev Saraswat, 46, an employee of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), was assisting a Parliamentary delegation at the hotel when he was killed in the terrorist attack on November 27.

Rajeev, who hailed from Moradabad and worked with the oil major’s Hindi language department, moved to the city in 1994 but settled down fast to become a part of its cultural life. He set up Shruti Samvad Sahitya Kala Academy with friend Arvind Rahi. “You meet him once and he would leave you with a feeling of familiarity that would make you wonder if the acquaintance was very old,” says Rahi.

“He was in two minds (about moving to Mumbai), thinking whether it would be appropriate for the family to shift from Moradabad where they were quite comfortable to an unfamiliar Mumbai,” says his UK-based brother Naresh. “From the early years, he was more creatively inclined and outgoing,” says Naresh.

The Saraswat brothers lost their father over three decades ago and Naresh was more of a father figure to Rajeev, seven years younger to him. “Like a guardian, I would play down his abilities and prod him to excel,” he says.

Saraswat is survived by his wife and two daughters. His neighbours knew him as a poet. In one of his poems, Desh Rehe Akhand, wrote about how the youth of the country should unite to stop “the bloodbath.” And just a few days before his death, at a programme in Navi Mumbai, he read out a couple of lines from the poet Ghanshyam Agarwal: “Hum To Bach Gaye Ye Saal Mein–Ab Tum Bachna Naye Saal Mein (We have survived this year, now it is your turn to survive the new year).”