A man on consoled by others after news of the death of his wife and father-in-law in the Andhra Pradesh train accident.
For most of the world, winters at the end of the year are days of celebration. But this year, for people waiting at the Victoria Hospital in Bangalore, it is a time of darkness, fear and faint hope.
As ambulances carrying the bodies of those killed in Saturday's Nanded Express fire accident travelled towards Bangalore, relatives, friends and colleagues of the passengers gravitated towards Victoria Hospital. People they knew had boarded the ill-fated train on Friday night but the train did not reach its destination. Instead, a fire in a coach in the middle of the night claimed 26 lives. (
Read) And adding to the misery, there was not yet any confirmation for many of the anxious people waiting at the hospital, if indeed their loves ones were among the dead.
Dr Imran, whose sister-in-law Dr Asra had boarded the train with her two-year-old son Mohammed, told NDTV, "She left our house with a smiling face. But we haven't heard from her after that. Our hope is that she is just injured." Dr Imran's wife and Asra's sister was drawing some bleak hope from the fact that her sister's name was not on the list of passengers in the bogey that was burnt. But the fear and tension was evident - as they had not still heard from her.
It was a long wait, and after the ambulances arrived, the anxious couple went into the morgue to see if they could identify any of the badly charred bodies. Dr Imran said as most of the bodies can't be recognised, they would see if they could identify any ornaments. Failing which, family members would give blood to allow a DNA test to be carried out for final, official confirmation.
Another group of colleagues was waiting for final news of a colleague, a director in the company in which they work. One of them told NDTV that he had been identified at the spot by his wallet and bracelet, but that the body was so badly charred, police had asked them to get blood samples from his relatives.
This was one more fatal train journey that turned the lives of so many people upside down.