Everyone in the Sharma family in Delhi was waiting to see Jamna (62) and her daughter Jyoti (26) as both were about to leave the country in a week. Most of them had not met Jyoti, who works as a primary school English teacher in Hong Kong and had come to India a month earlier, over the years.
On Monday morning, as they were preparing for a meeting, they were startled by a call from the police and locals in outer Delhi. Jamna and Jyoti and another relative Nisha (32), who were traveling from Himachal Pradesh to the capital, were Killed after his i20 car collided with a stationary cluster bus, The impact of the collision was such that the front part of the vehicle was completely damaged.
Jamna’s sister-in-law Neena Sharma said, “We were all very proud of her. They left everything and shifted to Hong Kong 20 years ago. He opened a small restaurant and soon became a successful restaurateur. Jamna’s son Pradeep is also a great chef in London… We had a lot of plans… Before leaving, he was also planning to shop in Delhi.”
Jamna had come back to India last year and was staying at her home in Himachal Pradesh along with other family members and relatives. Last month Jyoti took a break and came to meet her mother.
“Today, we were going to celebrate Pradeep’s (Jamna’s son) birthday. Jamna was excited to go back and meet her husband Jagannath. Jyoti also wanted her mother to come back and stay with her. We will hear stories about Jyoti and her friends traveling to different countries. Now everyone is sad. We have informed both Pradeep and Jagannath. It will take at least a day for them to come here…,” said Neena.
Meanwhile, Nisha’s family was suffering. Her one-year-old son Atharv, who was in the car, is also seriously injured and is on ventilator. Her husband Vijay is an architect and the family lives in Ghaziabad.
Nisha had gone to Himachal last week for a family function. About an hour before the accident, Vijay had called her and asked about her location. He was planning to take her near outer Delhi as the rest were on their way towards Uttam Nagar. They got information about the accident at around 6.40 am. He and others reached the spot but were then asked to go to the hospital.
“Everything was fine on the call. We don’t know what happened. By the time we arrived, Nisha was dead. Her elder daughter Nivi doesn’t even know about her mother’s death and brother’s condition. We were all scared. Atharv has multiple fractures…,” said Nisha’s brother-in-law Sushil Sharma.
Police said they are checking CCTV to ascertain the sequence of events.