The conversation on the afternoon of 7/11 between insurance agent Paresh Thakkar and wife Dolly—it would end up as their last—followed a common routine. She briefed him about the day’s performance of the Sensex. “When I told him it had risen appreciably, he was very happy and said that was good news for his clients.”

Hours later, Paresh was killed in the train blast at Jogeshwari station. But Dolly (33) says that’s how she would like to remember her husband—passionate about his work and devoted to the families he insured.

The 6-foot-tall, bespectacled and soft-spoken Thakkar epitomised the quintessential Mumbaiite: he was self-made, hard working and principled. At 15, after his Class X exams, to supplement the family income hit by a father’s ailing health, he began working at a teashop in the South Mumbai locality of Dongri. He also studied Commerce at the city’s Jai Hind College.

Later, he worked as an accountant for a city tyre company, venturing into selling insurance policies from 1991. In 1995, he decided to devote himself fulltime to insurance, and 11 years later was putting together plans on how to set up an insurance agency that could give jobs to 8-10 people.

At the South Mumbai branch of Life Insurance Corporation of India where Thakkar worked, V Rao, his boss of 16 years, reflects how Thakkar swiftly developed into his “star agent”.

“In 1991, Paresh came to me saying he wanted to become an insurance agent. Once our association started, he would come at 6 every morning, to hand me policy documents. He was like my alarm clock. Even as we sit here, I expect his call,” says Rao.

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