Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Tearful adieu to Kulathoor youths

— Photo: S. Gopakumar

Last journey:Ambulance carrying the bodies of five youths who drowned in the Kundala dam waters in Munnar on Thursday arriving at Kulathoor in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All roads led to Arasummoodu on Friday evening as local people gathered to pay tributes to five youths who, till the other day, were an effervescent presence in the area.

For a people yet to come to terms with the fact that these lives were doused by the frigid waters of the Kundala dam near Munnar on Thursday, brutal reality rolled to a stop in the form of five ambulances. Strong hands gently lowered Sreejith, Ratheesh Kumar, Rajesh, Manu Mohan and Bharath on to a specially-erected pandal, just across the road from the shop where they used to gather daily before going home. As friends and acquaintances, the young and the old, struggled to maintain composure walking past the bodies.

They almost did not go to Munnar, these youth. The vehicle they had arranged for the trip did not turn up on Wednesday and so all of them went back to their homes. All at once they got the news that another vehicle—just back from a trip—had become available. Since the driver was very tired, another person was quickly arranged. Eight youths from Kulathoor set out on the fateful trip. Friends who received their hasty goodbye never had even an inkling of what time had in store for the youths.

On Thursday afternoon, Pappan a local resident was among the first to receive a call from Munnar. He was frantically informed that five members of the group had ‘gone missing.'

“I immediately told the caller to go in search for them and that they may have lost their way somewhere,” Pappan told The Hindu on Friday. “It was then that he tearfully told me that they had gone missing in the dam.”

Within no time, groups of local people commandeered local vehicles and rushed to Munnar. Others rushed to the nearby Oroottuparambu Perumal Thampuran temple where the youth used to unfailingly take their annual ‘vritham.' Very soon, Kulathoor learnt that the youth were beyond human intervention.

“Each of the boys was close to the hearts of the local people. Ever courteous, ready to help, affable…no event, no occasion here was complete without them. These were the kind of youth that our society needed,” said S. Sivadath, Attipra ward councillor. “The local library, the temple, the shop across the road…nothing will be the same again, ever.” While the bodies of Manu Mohan and Bharath were taken to the crematorium at Thycaud, the funeral of the other three were held at their homes. Law Minister M. Vijayakumar, Mayor C. Jayan Babu, V. Sivankutty, MLA, Deputy Leader of the Opposition G. Karthikeyan and BJP State president V. Muraleedharan were among those who paid their last respects.

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Tearful adieu to Kulathoor youths

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