HYDERABAD/CHENNAI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, phones that carried holiday updates rang with news no family was prepared to hear, turning a sponsored Vietnam getaway into a journey remembered only for lives cut short and homes left waiting.Among the victims were AC Thomas (58) and wife Lovely Thomas (56), from Kottarakkara in Kerala’s Kollam district.They had left on July 7 on a weeklong tour organised by a private medical company. The couple remained in touch until Friday before they were first reported missing after a boat carrying 32 Indian tourists capsized off Phu Quoc Island Saturday afternoon.“They travelled to Vietnam on a weeklong package tour. We first came to know about the accident through news reports. Later, the tour coordinator informed us that both of them died and their bodies were recovered during rescue operations. We are yet to receive information on when the bodies will be repatriated to India. We are in constant touch with the Indian embassy in Vietnam,” Thomas’s brother AC Varghese said.Andhra’s Machilipatnam mourned Gelli Jaya Lakshmi, while her husband, businessman Gelli Kishore, remained in hospital in Vietnam. Friends remembered them as inseparable. “Whenever Kishore travelled, he always preferred to go with his family, especially his wife… It is heartbreaking that a joyful vacation ended in such a devastating tragedy…” family friend Bandi Rambabu said.Tamil Nadu bore the heaviest toll. Among those killed were Salem wholesale mobile phone dealer, N Sridhar (60), who had travelled with friends on July 8, and Senthil Kumar (45), a Lava mobile dealer in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts who also ran an aluminium factory and an RO system agency. Kumar’s father Jayavel, a retired sub-inspector, said his son had been reluctant to travel. “Fate took my son’s life,” he said.Three more victims came from Tiruchirappalli district – N Balaji (44), S Alagurajan (39), and A Shaik Abdullah (56). They had left Wednesday and were due back on Monday.At Alagurajan’s home, relatives struggled to absorb the loss. “Why should something like this happen to such kind-hearted people,” a family member said.Abdullah’s elder brother Mohammed Bawa recalled the family’s last call. “This morning, he called his son… he said he would be out of network because they were heading to an island. None of us knew that would be our last conversation.”Another victim from Tamil Nadu was Muruga Prabhu (43), in Dindigul district. A Lava mobile distributor, he had earned the company-sponsored Vietnam trip with friend Nirmal Kumar after meeting sales targets. They left Chennai on July 8 and were expected home Monday.Hundreds of kilometres apart, homes that had awaited souvenirs and smiling photographs braced for coffins, turning a reward trip into a trail of heartbreak.(Inputs from Salem, Trichy, Madurai)
