“We felt nothing but despair after he died. Now, we have just one goal — to fulfill his hopes and aspirations through the bhajan mandal,” says Mane with a devotion indicative of Manish's popularity in Bandrekarwadi. “He had this magnetic quality that would attract everybody to him,” says his father, a retired Income Tax department employee. “His friends included people of all ages. He was very good at organising stuff and getting things done.” His parents recall how Manish had promised to buy them an apartment, someday. But he would not leave Bandrekarwadi as he had a “huge circle of friends.”

Manish was working hard towards his dream. He's had a job ever since he passed higher secondary. During the last two months before his untimely death, Manish was doing a course in stock-trading at a private institute. “He would first attend classes and then leave for work (as a salesman) in the evening,’’ says Mohan.

Study and work kept him away from home for long hours. So finally, his parents persuaded him to quit his present job and start visiting the markets to make a career for himself there.

On July 10, Manish quit his salesman's job and brought home his last salary. The next day, he had gone to the institute for a final test. He appeared for it and took the Borivali train to come back home. He died on the way. Mother Madhavi has the last word on her son. “He was a good boy.”