THE FIRST thing 75-year-old Surendra Singh Chauhan did after television channels started flashing news of the helicopter crash near Coonoor on Wednesday was to call up his son, Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, who was posted at Sulur Indian Air Force station near Coimbatore.
On finding his son's phone switched off, the worried father called up his eldest daughter Shakuntala Tomar, who is settled in Mumbai, and asked her to collect details of the crash.
Shakuntala immediately called up Prithvi's wife Kamini, who told her that Prithvi was in the helicopter. Hours later, the family's worst fears were confirmed: there was only one survivor of the crash and it was not Prithvi.
“He (Surendra) kept surfing news channels to know more details of the crash. In the evening, when Shakuntala informed about Prithvi's death, we were shocked,” said Yashpal Singh (57), Prithvi's uncle.
As the news spread of the 42-year-old's death, people in large numbers, including political leaders, started visiting the family home at Saran Nagar in Agra. On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya visited the family.
The only son – and the youngest among his five siblings – Prithvi was close to his parents and would keep in touch over the phone regularly. He last called them three days ago, said Yashpal, when he had a long chat with his 70-year-old mother Sushila.
During the conversation, he said, “Prithvi told his mother that he had fixed an appointment for her…
