A year after their daughter Arushi’s murder, Dr Nupur and Rajesh Talwar are trying to pick up the pieces by blanking out all photographs, and with it the “colossal loss” of their teenaged daughter from their lives.

Besides removing all photographs of Arushi, the doctor couple has also relocated to South Delhi from the Noida flat where the teenager was found murdered on May 16 last year. And as the death anniversary approaches, a notice at Rajesh Talwar’s new dental clinic at Hauz Khas says: “Last year, on May 16, our beloved daughter Arushi suddenly left us alone in this world. We are holding a prayer meeting in her fond memory, on May 16 between 4 pm and 5 pm at Chinmaya Mission, Lodhi Road.”

Chants of “Om Sai Ram” play in the background as one enters Talwar’s “dental surgery, orthodontic and implantology centre”. There are no family photographs in the clinic but the Talwar couple’s trust in Sai Baba is writ large — there are numerous Sai Baba idols, placed at several locations in the clinic. “We have become more spiritual now; we are looking for inner peace,” Dr Rajesh Talwar told Newsline at his clinic on Monday. “We get some peace now only at the Sai Baba Temple.”

Trying to get their lives back on track, the couple has moved to Azad Apartments in South Delhi. Initially, after the murder and Rajesh Talwar’s release from Dasna Jail, they lived with his brother Dinesh in Noida. But going back to L-32, Jalvayu Vihar in Noida is out of question — that house holds too many memories of Arushi, Talwar said.

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