According to Vichare, Patil was waiting to get out of the hotel when he last met him by the stairway. “A little earlier, we sat together in the cold kitchen, and spoke to our principal on the phone. That was around 2 am. The last I saw him was around 2:30 am. After that, around 10:00 am, I got to know that they had found his body,” said Vichare. “We sat making sandwiches for the guests and ourselves between around 1:30 to 2:30 am. We chatted and joked. We were so happy. He had told me that the battery of his cell phone was discharged. So when I last tried calling him, I thought the battery would be dead, which was why he was not picking up,” said Vichare.

Asked how he felt after exiting the hotel safely, Vichare says, “I thought about the people inside. I don’t know how many friends I have lost.”