KATWARU YADAV, 60
Katwaru Yadav had dropped by at the Varanasi court to seek legal advice from his lawyer neighbour Nityanand Singh on a land-related case that he was involved in. That was when the second blast took place.
“He had earlier planned to meet Nityanand on November 26. The court hearing for his case was on December 3. But he changed his mind at the last minute and instead went to the court on Friday,” says Yadav’s 31-year old son Babu Lal.
A lecturer, Lal was teaching NCC cadets in Mau district when he first heard of the blasts. He called up one of his friends in Varanasi and asked him to help his brother find his father. The search ended at the mortuary of the Varanasi District Hospital. Yadav was among the five people brought dead to the hospital.
Through life, Yadav had worked hard, tending to his cattle, with the sole aim of putting his children through school and college. With his son Babu Lal getting a teaching position at the Mau PG College, things were looking up for the family. But, says Lal, “we didn’t know our happy days were numbered.”

BRAHMA PRAKASH SHARMA, 38
One of the three lawyers killed in the Varanasi blasts, Sharma left behind his wife Abha and two children Sejal and Shivam. He had been practising law for the last 15 years.
“My father wanted me to wear his black coat one day. Now I will wear it not only to become a lawyer but to ensure that no terrorist is able to escape the severest possible punishment,” says Sejal, a first-year student at the Banaras Hindu University.
Brother Shivam, who aspires to become an engineer, now dreams of building mechanisms that can check terror attacks.

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