A Day of Unimaginable Loss: A Family Torn Apart by Tragedy
Vinod Kumar was away from home on Tuesday, as he often is, traveling in search of masonry work. Then came the call that would shatter his world.
In one devastating moment, he learned that all the women in his family — spanning three generations — had perished in a deadly stampede.
The tragedy unfolded during a massive gathering led by a spiritual guru, where panic turned fatal. Among the 121 lives lost that day were Mr. Kumar’s wife, 42-year-old Raj Kumari, his 9-year-old daughter Bhumi, and his elderly mother, Jaimanti.
For the rest of the day, Mr. Kumar and his three sons combed through hospitals, desperately searching through rows of bodies. It wasn’t until close to midnight, at the government hospital in Hathras, that they found Raj Kumari and Bhumi — their lifeless bodies laid out on slabs of ice among countless others in a dim corridor.
Overcome with anguish, Mr. Kumar broke down at his wife’s feet.
“Why did you leave me like this?” he cried. “Who will scold the children now, and push them to go to school?”
But grief had to wait. His mother’s body was still missing. He gently lifted Bhumi for one last embrace — she wore a yellow top, her ponytail tied with a pink band.
“Let her sleep,” whispered Nitin, his eldest son, softly taking her from his father’s arms and placing her back on the slab. The search had to continue.
“I don’t know when I’ll find my mother’s body,” Mr. Kumar said. “I want to do their last rites together.”
Jaimanti, the family matriarch, had been a devoted follower of the guru — Suraj Pal, a former police officer turned spiritual leader, now known as Narayan Sakar Hari or Bhole Baba. His teachings resonated deeply with families like the Kumars — those pushed to the margins by poverty and India’s rigid caste system.
Now, that devotion had cost them everything.