Ramesh also revealed that this year would also see ‘‘half-ticket’s’’ — the family would rile her for her small frame — wedding. Her fiance, who worked in the Middle East, had been waiting for eight years to marry her, he says.

But the celebrations stopped on February 24 when Rachna accidentally fell in the bathroom and suffered a brain haemorrhage. Her death changed everything in the family. Nandini withdrew into herself, refusing to attend social gatherings and their house, usually the favourite Sunday haunt of friends, became quieter than ever before. “She would come home from work. Eat something and go to sleep,” recalls her father. As days progressed to months she became more and more aloof, lost interest and even stopped talking much. Family and friends tried their best but couldn’t pull her out of her shell.

The news of Nandini’s death reached Ramesh late. He was on his way back from Goa’s Beacholin temple, where he had gone for a puja to the family deity in connection with Rachna’s sudden demise.

For always, Ramesh’s abiding memory of his elder daughter will be of the time he saw her in hospital on July 12. ‘‘Her face was without a scar, beautiful as always.’’