Not far from where they died,family was to start orphanage

Poonja,his wife Manirekha and teenage daughter Harshini were building My Home,the orphanage,since they felt that it was their turn “to give back to those less fortunate than us and to share with them the joy of belonging to a family”.

“We were fortunate enough to have a mother and father who surrounded us with their love,who worked hard to provide for our daily needs and education and who were there to listen to us and advise us,” the Poonjas stated on the My Home website. The orphanage project involved re-modelling an old house on the Bajpe-Surathkal road which the family had acquired.

Old friends said the Poonjas were coming to Mangalore for a pooja and were hoping to take back Shashikant’s elderly mother,who lived alone,to Dubai for the first time. “We heard that he had tried to convince his mother on several occasions to live with his family in Dubai but she refused. This time it seems she had finally agreed,” said a friend of Shashikant.

Shashikant had married Manirekha in three different ceremonies after their families had objected to their marriage,said V Keshav,a friend who worked with him while he was based in Mangalore. “They ran away and got married,they had a simple temple wedding,an Arya Samaj wedding and a formal wedding after their families came around and consented to the marriage,” he said.

Considered very talented,Poonja developed the landmark Tagore Park on Mangalore’s Lady Hill Road with a small design firm he started there. In Dubai,he was involved in several high-profile design projects including,many for giant retail groups.

Shankar Poonja,a relative of Shashikant who found the family’s name on a Wenlock Hospital list for people who died in the crash,said he had feared the worst when Shashikant had not answered his mobile phones on Saturday morning.

Poonja’s other dream project in his home town was a beach house at Mulky near Mangalore.