When will mummy return home, asks 10-year-old

The Salunkhe family's dream of celebrating the festival came crashing as the fire at Bhosari's Sai Industries claimed the life of Sunita. She along with her five other colleagues died in the smoke-filled bathroom of the company. Sunita is survived by her husband and three children -- Pooja (17), Poonam (11) and Praveen (10). She and Namrata Suryavanashi, who also stays at the officers' mess quarters, used to leave for work together and most of them also returned home together. Both of them died in the tragedy.

According to her family members, on that fateful day, Namrata was not ready to go to work but Salunkhe apparently told her that since Thursday anyways was holiday, there was no point in taking two consecutive offs. Many times, especially towards the end of the month, both Namrata and Sunita walked home in Dapodi all the way from Landewadi. It took them two and half hours. Both of them wanted to save every penny for their families, says relatives.

Kisan Salunkhe says of his three children, 10-year-old Praveen keeps asking,"Aai kadhi ghari yenaar?" (When will mummy return home?). "Even 11-year-old Pooja pesters me...she also wants to know when her mother will return home from work," says Salunkhe, who has been working as a waiter with the officers' mess quarters for 20 years now.

The three children are currently at their native place at Kupwad in Sangli district. Kisan Salunkhe had married Sunita 11 years back after the death of his first wife in an "accident." "Tragedies have been a part of my life...I had lost my father when I was still in diapers, then my mother died. My first wife died after the birth of the eldest daughter." A visibly shaken Salunkhe says,"For last two months, I was already under tension as my health has deteriorated. And now this big blow."

... contd.