KL-NEPAL-CHILDREN

Birthday trip to Nepal turns tragic for children from Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 (PTI) It was the birth month
of three children, who were looking forward to the Nepal trip
as a finale of the celebrations, but fate had something else
in store.
The three children died along with their parents Praveen
and Saranya and three others, part of a 15-member group of
family friends from Kerala on Tuesday, possibly due to
asphyxiation in their room at a mountainous resort in Nepal.
Sree Bhadra (9), Aarcha (7) and Abhinav (4)- the children
of 39-year-old Dubai based IT professional Praveen Krishnan
Nair and his wife Saranya, had told their friends and teachers
that they were going on a tour to celebrate their birthdays.
The shell-shocked teachers of a private school at
Elamakkara in Kochi, where the Praveen's family was staying,
said they were yet to come to terms with the reality that they
would never see the little ones again.
The teachers said the three kids were well-mannered and
would joyfully complete tasks assigned to them.
"It is a loss to us. Such wonderful children...," a
teacher told media as she broke down.
The Kochi school will hold a remembrance for the children
during the assembly on Thursday, she said.
According to family members, all the three children were
born in the month of January.
While Sree Bhadra was born on January 3, Abhinav on 15
and Aarcha on 31st of the same month, they said adding that
the Nepal trip was planned also as a birthday gift for the
little ones.
They were seen all happy and excited in the CCTV footage
from the apartment in Kochi, which was recorded minutes before
they left for the airport to catch a flight to New Delhi and
then to Nepal.
Besides Praveen and family, Kunnamangalam-based couple
Ranjith Kumar TB (39) and Indu (34) and their son Vaishnav (2)
had also lost their lives at the resort on Tuesday.
IT professionals Praveen and Ranjith along with two other
friends and family members had gone to the Himalayan resort
after a get together of Engineering college batchmates in
Delhi.
According to friends, Ranjith and wife Indu had embarked
on the trip days after celebrating their wedding anniversary.
Indu, who worked in a local cooperative bank in Kozhikode,
had cut a cake at the office to celebrate the anniversary on
the previous day of their Nepal trip.
The photos of the cake cutting event during the lunch
break, in which Indu was all smiles, has now become a haunting
memory for her colleagues.
Ranjith's elder son, Madhav, a second-standard student,
who was sleeping with another family in the neighbouring room,
has been orhpaned by the tragedy.
Madhav is at Kathmandu with the friends of Praveen and
Ranjith.
"I will come soon," he told a relative who got in touch
soon after hearing about the tragedy on Tuesday.
Praveen, who hails from Chempazhanthi, a town bordering
Kollam, worked as an engineer in Dubai while his wife,
Saranya, who was a second year student of MPharm at the Amrita
Pharmacy college at Kochi, was very "social and friendly".
"All of us are shocked on hearing about her death,"
college sources told PTI.
The four friends had studied together at the Sree Chitra
Tirunal College of Engineering at Pappanamcode from where they
had graduated in 2004.
Ranjith, who had worked at Thiruvananthapuram and at
Infopark at Kochi, had few months ago quit his job and started
his own business at Kozhikode.
Praveen's friends said two of their former batchmates
have rushed to Kathmandu to accompany the mortal remains,
which is expected to reach the state for the final rites on
Thursday.
Union minister of state for External Affairs V
Muraleedharan said post-mortem procedures of the 8 keralites,
has already begun and efforts are on to expedite the process.
In a tweet, the minister said he had spoken to the Indian
Embassy officials in Nepal.
"Spoke to Indian Embassy in Nepal. Post-mortem of the
deceased 8 Indian tourists has already started. Our embassy is
working closely with the T.U. Teaching hospital and local
authorities to expedite the process," he said. PTI LGK UD
ROH ROH

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)