Family,friends say goodbye to Abhishek

“She hasn’t uttered a word since she saw the body,” said her brother Alok Kumar.

At the family’s C-33 H Road,Mahanagar residence,the gathering paid tribute to the “fun-loving,cute and courteous” Abhishek.

“It is hard to convince ourselves that he is not around anymore,” said Amit Vikram Singh,his schoolmate. Singh,along with dozens of friends from the 2006 batch Mahanagar Boys’ Inter College,attended the funeral.

“He was a simple but enthusiastic guy much like Rancho,one of the 3 Idiots,” he said,moved to tears at the sight of the coffin.

“He was a born engineer,keen to take up practical projects rather than written assignments,” said another friend,Abhishek Sharma. “Since we shared the same name,friends use to call me Abhishek while he was referred to as ‘Kumari’,” he recalled.

The nickname was conferred in view of the soft nature of Abhishek,who was pursuing a BTech (mechanical) course from Pune’s DY Patil Engineering College.

A college coordinator for the Society of Automotive Engineers — an international society that serves the engineering community engaged in designing and manufacturing of self-propelled vehicles — Abhishek’s hobbies and interests centered machines.

“Staying over at his place and spending time on practical assignments was our favourite pastime,” said his friend Aditya. “He always performed well in exams.”

For neighbours who assembled to express solidarity with the family,Abhishek was a “soft spoken boy,always ready to help”.

“Not just his mother,even we looked forward to his visits home ever since he left for Pune,” said neighbour Ajay Singh.

Abhishek had suffered severe injuries in the right leg. The leg had been amputated,but he did not survive.