Mangalore: Even in the midst of such a dark tragedy, the positive aspects of the human spirit can shine through. People living near the crash site flocked to help after the air crash, even though they will be tormented by the images for a long time to come. NDTV reporter met one such family in Kenjur village near the crash site.
Chandrashekhar and his family live less than a kilometre away from the crash site. And as soon as he heard about the crash, he rushed to the spot to help in any way he could.
Commenting on the accident, Chandrashekar said, "For the families that were living here, it was a tragedy right in their own backyard."
"We have seen such crashes which happened far away, and we did feel bad. But this happened so close, we feel terrible. We didn't cook or eat," said Chandrashekar's wife Nirmala.
"My son went there in the morning and stayed till evening. We heard of this disaster in the morning and felt disturbed. We didn't feel like eating all day. We saw the ambulances pass," said Chandrashekar's mother Meenakshi.
The villagers of Kenjur have demonstrated the importance of caring. People from this village turned out to help, to do what they could. Whether it was rescuing the few survivors or pulling out the bodies of the dead. On that dark day for Mangalore, they managed to shed a little bit of light.