When Aryan Shinde, all of two years and eight months, wanders in from next door looking for “kaka Manish”, no one knows what to say.

“Manish kaka has gone on an airplane to a far off place. He will not be coming back.”

That’s the best Manish’s father, 64-year-old Mohan Divekar, and mother Madhavi can do. For the last two months they have been saying this to little Aryan, who somehow doesn’t seem convinced.

Manish, the Divekars’ only child, was working as a salesman at a mega shopping centre in Dadar. That day, he was coming home to Ramlochan chawl in Jogeshwari and was on the Borivali local. The 6.25 pm blast on the train at Khar station killed him.

Two months after Terrible Tuesday, while the Divekars are still struggling to come to terms with their loss, the chawl in Jogeshwari’s Bandrekarwadi too hasn’t recovered from the shock.

For Manish had always been at the centre of all community activities. Be it a picnic, a sports meet, or a puja, he was always there, leading from the front. “He realised that often boys of the chawl did nothing but hang out in the streets,” recalls friend Rakesh Mane. “He wanted to do something constructive.”

Soon, the Shri Dattaguru Prasadik Bhajan Mandal was formed for the boys to sing devotional songs.

They got themselves a few simple musical instruments and began practising. Three years on, the bhajan mandal is extremely busy — during this Ganpati festival they were flooded with requests to perform at different pandals.

... contd.