Engineer died in a train blast at Borivali on 7/11. Three days later, Amruta got a job as an accountant at a multinational jewellery firm in Andheri.

“He was very eager to know about my interview. We spoke at 2.30 that afternoon, but my interview was not over then. So he must have been rushing home. He was really keen that I get this job,’’ she says.

That day, Suresh’s brother Hemant found out, a colleague of his had asked him to check a new bill which had come in late. But Suresh declined, saying he would finish it first thing Wednesday morning as he was in a hurry to leave. “Woh kabhi na nahi bolte the. Do minute ruk jate the aur, lekin kaam khatam karke atate the. Us din kya huva nahi pata (He never said no to work. It had to be completed even if that meant he would be held up. Don’t know what happened that day though),” rues Hemant.

Engineer — the eldest of seven siblings— started working early. He got his first offer while he was studying in Class IX. It was from the railways and he jumped at it.

A workaholic, Suresh would be on his toes always—even on Sundays.

But evenings were reserved for wife Nirmala. “Every Sunday he would go out with her. That’s the only day they could spend some time with each other. It would be a short trip of their own,” recalls Amruta.

But despite his hawk eye on work issues, Suresh was popular at office. “He would keep an eye on everything, to the smallest detail. But if something was amiss, then Suresh would have to fix it come what may,” says his departmental colleague Nitin Dahati.

And though he was always punctual about coming to work, he was hardly particular about leaving. “Often work would hold him back in office,” recalls section engineer Jugal Dhulia. “A fortnight before the blasts, there was a minor problem and we ended up staying back in office to complete the maintenance work.”

Outside of his professional life, if Suresh loved his Sunday evening walks with Nirmala, he also liked watching movies. “The Towering Inferno was his favourite. He had seen it on the first day first show way back in 1974. He liked Baghbaan too,” reminisces Amruta, adding that he “simply loved’’ old film songs of Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh.

On Terrible Tuesday, Suresh boarded the 5.19 pm Virar fast from Churchgate but died after a blast ripped through his compartment at Borivali. With son Dhiren away in New Delhi, the family was informed of his body at Bhagwati Hospital by the police.

Suresh’s boss Omkar Singh was with him on the same train but in another compartment. “We normally prefer the last compartment together. That day, for some reason, he took the front one,” rues Singh.

Hemant can’t get over the fact that he didn’t visit them as he did every day to meet their mother Parvatiben (who was staying with him). “He would always come here, have some snacks and then head home,’’ he says. “That day, I guess, he wanted to return home early... if only he had come. But what can be done now.”

Suresh was due for retirement next year. And had already made plans of running a small shop either in Nallasopara or somewhere else in Mumbai to stay busy. But even though that’s not to be, he will always be remembered by all— his family will miss him for the father he was and the elder brother he had been, while his colleagues say they’ll keep talking of the “jolly good man who loved to eat chicken and mutton.”