Pooja Kallur, a 22-year-old student from Navi Mumbai and 20-year-old Karishma Bhonsale from Pune had left for Russia’s Smolensk State Medical Academy to acquire medical degrees. Their lifeless bodies arrived on Wednesday at Mumbai’s International Airport in caskets. Their untimely deaths have brought the dreams of their families crashing down.
The tragedy has snatched away two unsuspecting young lives and brought irreparable loss into the lives of their loved ones. The two roommates had apparently been fast asleep in the early hours of 14 February 2016 when the hostel building was engulfed in fire.
Parents of both the girls complain that the college authorities were callous and insensitive in their approach. The office of the External Affairs Minister has however been actively involved in helping the victims’ families gain access to information.
There are nearly 850 Indian students studying at the varsity in Smolensk, near the western border of Russia. Karishma Bhonsale’s father, Uday Bhosale, told the Indian Express that the last communication from the university was a phone call on February 14 at 2:59 pm to inform him about his daughter’s death, at least, three hours after he had already started receiving calls from parents of other Indian students studying there.
“After that, they haven’t bothered to call me once. They didn’t even tell me the cause of her death and said we will call later. Now they have all switched off their phones.” said Bhosale who runs a small business of solar panel accessories.
The fire broke out in the neighbouring room from where two girls ran out and were safe, then why did our girl die? Did anyone knock their door even once to warn them because the information that I got from her friends was that they realised she was missing only after they did a head count.Jyoti Malusare, Karishma’s aunt
Pooja was the elder daughter of Bhosale family who went to Smolensk in 2012 to study medicine and was currently in her fourth year MBBS. A bright student who scored 92 percent marks in her SSC exam, her scores in CET for medical admission suffered a bit when she contracted chicken pox in HSC. They got to know of the Russian university through a newspaper advertisement and mortgaged their house for Rs 18 lakh to fund her education.
“She wanted to be a neurosurgeon,” said her brother Karan who then broke down in a fit of tears. “She was adamant on studying medicine and since Indian universities were offering Rs 50 to Rs 90 lakh packages which we couldn’t afford, she found about this university through a newspaper ad and their package was Rs 18 lakh. I mortgaged my house to make her study and now I will probably have to sell it,” said Uday Bhosale from their 2-BHK residence in Laxmi Nagar near Parvati. The two would have graduated in May this year.
Brave Indian Survivors of the Accident
If this tragedy has left you feeling sad, there is a heartening story involving twins from Virar. The two girls, Nidhi Bakshi and Nikki Bakshi, not only escaped the fire but also managed to alert 8 other girls which saved their lives. Nidhi had been studying in the early hours and sent a “good morning” message to her father when she noticed smoke coming from a room. Her presence of mind averted another tragedy.