Kandivali fire incident: Fire lays waste to best-laid plans

For 18-year-old Priyanka Damodar Gadekar, the entire world turned upside down within a few fateful hours on Monday. Hopeful of a happy future, the teenager was planning to get engaged within a week. However, after the Kandivali fire incident, she is now struggling to pick up the pieces.

Priyanka said she had lost “everything” in the fire at Damu Nagar slums at Kandivali (east). On Monday, she had left her house along with her parents to go to the bus stand to receive her future in-laws, who were coming from a village in Jalna. But when they returned, they found the house, along with everything in it, gutted in the fire.

Priyanka’s 72-year-old grandmother, Nanda Gadekar, said, “About 35 relatives of our family had gathered together for the engagement ceremony. Even they lost their belongings in the fire. As the fire broke out, they had to run for their lives. We had planned a party after the engagement ceremony, for which we had bought 50 kg wheat, 15 kg pulses and 20 kg maize from the market on Saturday. There were also new saris bought for the event. But now we can’t even find a single piece of them.”

Priyanka’s future in-laws, after seeing the tragedy returned to their village on Tuesday. The engagement ceremony has now been postponed.

Some of the families have lost their monthly income in the fire. Seventy-two-year-old Dashrath Hiwale said, “My son who is a labourer and my daughter-in-law, who is a house maid, brought in their salaries on Saturday. We had thought of depositing it in the bank on Monday noon. But God had some other plans. About '9,000 of their salary has been lost.”

Lalita Kishan Shejrao’s is another case where the fire played havoc with people’s aspirations. Ms Shejrao had come to the city last week as her mother was unwell and admitted to a hospital for back pain. She said, “I left my gold chain, rings and mangalsutra, worth 2 tolas in total, at home before going to the hospital on Monday. At about 3 pm, I learnt about the fire. I reached at my place and saw only yellow liquid where I had kept my gold ornaments.”