NEW DELHI: At the BSA Hospital mortuary in Rohini, Dharam,32, stood quietly beside a charred body he believed was that of his father. The previous night his 62-year-old father, Dilip Singh, had called him around 7.40pm with a chilling message about the factory being ablaze. Dharam, who works in a law firm in Noida, was in the metro, returning from work. “He told me, ‘Main nahi bachunga. Nikalne ki koi jagah nahi hai’ (I won’t survive. There’s no way to get out),” said the grieving son on Wednesday.Dharam, thinking it might be a small blaze, asked someone in the area to check on his father. “I thought maybe he was stuck or panicked and needed help getting out. But soon the calls stopped. Every call after that went unanswered,” he said. By the time he reached the factory, it was engulfed in flames. “I begged police to let me in to get my father out,” he said. His father’s charred body was recovered only on Wednesday around 10am.“My father was so happy to become a grandfather and looked forward to my son’s first birthday in Sept,” said Dharam, staring dully at what was left of the man who had refused to sit idle even at his age. He said his father had refused to retire. “Papa lived on the top floor of the building. He helped with loading and unloading goods and also supervised operations. We kept telling him to take it easy, but he said he liked being active.“The family, originally from Rithala, had shifted to Nangloi, but Singh chose to remain close to the factory. “He had a bed and a small gas cylinder to cook his meals,” Dharam said.A few kilometres from the mortuary, 50-year-old Neelam’s family waited anxiously near the gutted factory. Neelam’s husband, Naresh, last saw his wife on Tuesday morning when she left for work. By nightfall, she hadn’t returned. “She always came home around 7-8 pm,” Naresh said, holding their 10-year-old son Siddhant. “We called, we searched, but she’s nowhere.”Naresh added, “We came from Bihar to Delhi for a better future for our children. We’ve lived in Rithala for over 40 years now. I am an electrician and do other small jobs. My three daughters are married, while Siddhant is our youngest. Neelam took up whatever job she got, always thinking of how to support the household and Siddhant’s education.”Since 7pm on Tuesday, the family has been shuttling between the hospital and the factory, searching for answers. “We’ve gone back and forth so many times,” daughter Chinky said. “No one is telling us anything. We know there are bodies inside the hospital. We just want to know if our mother is there. We want to see her.” Little Siddhant murmured “Mummy aa jati hai 7-8 baje tak.”Two other bodies lie in the mortuary, unrecognisable and waiting to be claimed.
