'Take care Maa, flight take off karne wala hai, wapas aakar baat karti hoon.'
Lakshmi Thapa is not ready to accept that her daughter is no more despite the family conducting the terahvi ritual on the 13th day after death on Tuesday, June 24, a cloudy monsoon day in Patna.
Her daughter Manisha's final words -- 'Take care Maa, flight take off karne wala hai, wapas aakar baat karti hoon' -- haunt Lakshmi, a housewife. Manisha, 27, one of the crew members aboard Air India flight AI-171, perished that horrible Thursday afternoon in Ahmedabad.
"Lakshmi has been crying most of the time since. She is unable to forget Manisha's last words. Lakshmi is in a state of disbelief," says Bhumika Devi, her mother and Manisha's Nani (maternal grandmother), who lives separately with her son and his family in Patna.
Relatives have been consoling Lakshmi whose condition worsened thrice in the last thirteen days, says Bhumika Devi.
Bhumika Devi and a small group of relatives, mainly women, sit silently on the floor in the small living room, a few metres from another room where a priest is chanting mantras during the terhavi ceremony.
Manisha's policeman father Raju Thapa, Lakshmi and their only son Amit have been participating in the ritual since Tuesday morning.
"Neither Lakshmi nor any one of them are in a position to speak and share their grief. Please do not insist to talk to them, consider their state of mind," says Bhumika Devi, who also requests that no photographs be taken.
Manisha's uncle Guddu Thapa, who shaved his head like all male members of the family to mark mourning, recalls that when Manisha visited the family for ten days after Holi, she requested that her father take leave the next time she came home so that the family could spend more time together.
Manisha always complained that she missed her father whenever she visited because he hardly came home for a day.
"Now she will not visit and that moment will not come, it is hurting Manisha's father," says Guddu, a havildar with the Bihar Special Armed Police in Patna. Another uncle, Bablu Thapa, is also a havildar with the BSAP.
Manisha's father Raju Thapa is an assistant sub inspector with the Bihar police and posted in Begusarai district. Her brother Amit is pursuing graduation at a college in Patna.
Though Manisha's family originally hails from Viratnagar in Nepal, they have lived in Patna for many years.
A close relative Sharmila Newar, who has traveled from Ranchi in Jharkhand, says a week after the horrific tragedy Manisha's remains were identified by a DNA match at the Ahmadabad Civil Hospital. Her parents and Amit had flown to Ahmedabad a day after the crash.
"When her remains was brought to their rented house in Gandhipuram colony near Jagdeopath on June 17 evening, it was in a box and fully covered with white cloth," says Newar, adding information too distressing to be mentioned in this report.
Later that night, June 17, Manisha was cremated and her ashes immersed in the Ganga on June 22.
"No one speaks and hardly eats," says Ramesh Thapa, another close relative. "It will take time to them to return to normal."
Manisha's relatives are distressed that social media has circulated fake news about Manisha and the family.
"Family people are scared of them because they have been uploading video clips without meeting us. We want to request with folded hands that the family is facing a unbelievably sad time," says Rekha Thapa, another family member.
Manisha was born and educated in Patna. She graduated with a Bachelor's in Business Administration from St Xaviers' College, Patna, in 2017. She joined Indigo Airlines as a ground support staff in 2018 and after Covid joined Akasa Air. In 2023, she joined Air India as cabin crew and regularly flew international routes.
"For her, career came first," says her grandmother Bhumika Devi.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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