'It was an unbelievable accident'

JAIPUR: A pall of gloom descended in Mansarovar's Heera Path area on Saturday as the bodies of three persons killed in the Friday night mishap arrived after postmortem at SMS Hospital.
Some family members drifted in and out of consciousness at the sight of the bodies wrapped in white sheets. The neighbourhood is yet to recover from the shock. The only sound piercing the silence in the colony was the occasional outburst of grief from the parents of 8-year-old Arpit and the family members of furniture businessman Pramod and his son Subham.
The two families living next door to each other were inconsolable. The neighbours remembered how happy Pramod's family was just 15 hours ago when the new car arrived at their doorstep on Friday. The family had distributed sweets to celebrate the occasion. Some neighbours whispered it is the car which brought bad luck to the family.
"The iron items are like that. They can bring you an extremely good luck or bad luck. In case of Pramod family, the car brought bad luck," said a 65-year old neighbour.
A marriage is to take place in one of the two families on February 17. Arpit's cousin Balkishan is to tie the knot. But the family members are now unsure how things will proceed.
"There is an uncertainty looming over the marriage whether it should take place during the mourning period of 12 days. However, everybody seems to have forgotten about the marriage at the moment. The engagement ceremony is just three days away," said another neighbour, Ramkishan Agarwal.
Arpit's father Govind Agarwal who runs a flour mill was in a state of shock. "When Arpit saw the new car in Pramod's family, he also insisted that he would take a ride," said a family member.
Pramod's wife Laxmi was also in the car when the container from a truck fell over it on B2 Bypass. However, she escaped with minor injuries. Neighbours said that she was rushed home from the spot and was not told about her husband's death till wee hours.
"She fell unconscious many times ever since she came to know about her husband's death," said the neighbour.
A huge crowd of Mansarovar residents took part in last rituals of the three deceased. Many of them did not know the affected families, but the shock of the mishap was so intense that they came to console the grieving family members anyway.
"It was an unbelievable accident. Imagine someone going on the road and suddenly a container falling off the truck running ahead. It was horrifying," said Abhay Purohit, a Mansarovar resident.