Couple use education loan to perform son's last rites

Mumbai: Destiny can be really cruel at times. And who can know it better than the parents of 18-year-old Shabbir Bagsarwala, a first year student of Anjuman-I-Islam Kalsekar's Technical Campus School, who drowned in the backwaters of Kumarakom in Kerala where he had gone on a study tour.

Bagsarwalas, who stay at Bori Mohalla, near Bhendi Bazar, had taken a loan to fund Shabbir's aspiration of becoming an architect. However, the shattered family will now be using the same money to get their only son's body back to the city, and to perform his last rites.

Although Shabbir's father is an electrician, he wanted his son to be an architect. Speaking to MiD DAY, Munira Bagsarwala, Shabbir's mother, said, "We had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh from someone belonging to our community. But look at what destiny has in store. We are using the money to fly Shabbir's body back from Kerala."

Blaming the college for not taking necessary security measures, she questioned, "Why were the students not provided life jackets when there was no safety grill on the boat?" She added that there weren't any divers or lifeguards present at the site to rescue her only son.

Similarly, S Dalal, Shabbir's uncle, held the college responsible for negligence that led to the shocking incident. "Although the college authorities made the study tour compulsory, they didn't have any safety measures in place. There weren't any ropes or rubber tyres on the boat that could have helped him survive," he claimed.

Narrating the horrific incident, one of Shabbir's friends said, "As soon as we heard him shout for help, we asked the driver of the boat to stop. However, he kept driving, as he must not have heard us. No sooner did he realise what had happened, he jumped into the water in search of Shabbir."

Another friend who jumped into the water to rescue the deceased said, "I, along with two other friends, jumped into the water. However, we couldn't locate him. Then we swam down the shore and left in a bus that was waiting for us. The rescue team, that had reached the spot by then, took about two hours to fish Shabbir's body out."

Meanwhile, Abdul Razzaq, director of Anjuman-I-Islam's Kalsekar Technical Campus, said, "We extend our sympathies to the bereaved family. We'll support Bagsarwalas if they want to take the Kerala government to court." Razzaq added that the incident would serve as a lesson for them. "We'll have extra precautions when we take students for a study tour to avoid any such mishap," he said, adding that like the parents who have lost their son, even they have lost a student.