The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : August 25 trauma haunts family

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Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

August 25 trauma haunts family

Marri Ramu

Middle-aged couple unable to forget Gokul Chat nightmare

- PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

in a daze: Venkatalaxmi and Anjaneyulu remembering their daughter Sravanthy, who was killed in a bomb explosion at Gokul Chat in Koti.

HYDERABAD: August 25 left a deep scar on the middle-aged couple. It was on that terrible day, that 14-year-old Sravanthy, loving daughter of Venkatalaxmi and Anjaneyulu, got killed in the bomb blast at Gokul Chat in Koti.

As the ‘black day’ in their personal life approaches, the couple plunges into depression. Sravanthy’s photo on the wall in the front room of the house brings back fond memories to the family.

And the realisation of the void her death had created, only deepens the sorrow.

“After having two sons, we were desperate for a girl child and our joy knew no bounds when Sravanthy was born. That is why she was so special for us,” the wife and husband recall.

From the moment she started walking, to the first word she spoke, everything about their daughter is fresh in their memory.

Venkatalaxmi still remembers what her daughter did and said on August 25 before setting out to Koti from their house at Uppal for shopping with three other relatives -two of whom died along with her.

For some reason, the ninth standard student didn’t want to go to school that day. She helped her mother in the daily chores, had lunch with her and started for shopping in the evening.

“Had she gone to school, she would have returned home late and would not have gone to shopping. But God wished differently and took her life away,” the mother says with tears in eyes.

Anjaneyulu had great plans for their daughter. He wanted her to become an engineer like his elder son and had been saving money for her higher studies.

With more than 80 per cent marks in all subjects, her amicable nature, strict discipline in personal life and helping attitude, Sravanthy was a role model to her relatives and co-students. Even elders of the family respected the teenager for her forthright approach.

“Once she saw my elder brother smoking, Sravanthy argued with him so forcibly against smoking that he almost quit it. At least, he never smoked before her,” Anjaneyulu recalls.

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