Gurugram: 12-year-old cousins were together since birth, inseparable in death too

GURUGRAM: Those who knew Dev Nirvan in Shankar Vihar colony were also aware of his best friend, Rahul Aakhriya.
Born the same year, the 12-year-old cousins had taken their first steps together into the village school and graduated to Class 7 - all along in the same section. They not just shared tiffin and books, but also the dream of becoming a 'fauji' (soldier).
Dev and Rahul would often challenge each other to a race - both on the ground and in the waters of their village pond. On Sunday afternoon, the two inseparable cousins dashed out of home to a nearby pit that was filled with rainwater and decided to take the plunge. Was it another race? Perhaps. None of us will ever know.
The cousins were among six children who drowned in the pit on the outskirts of Bajghera on Sunday. As the rescue team brought their bodies out of the calm waters, their uncle, Sarjeet, could not stop crying. "Look at them. They are inseparable in their death too," he told TOI.
It was only around 4pm - an hour after they were feared drowned - that a search began for the boys in the rainwater-filled pit. The bodies were recovered, one by one, after a three-hour search.
While the six children had entered the water, a seventh offered to look after their clothes and slippers. It was Anshul, the seventh kid, who informed the villagers that his friends were feared drowned.
Around 4pm, Sanjay Singh left home to look for his sons - Amit (13) and Durgesh (8) - who had gone out to play a couple of hours earlier. Singh met Anshul on the way and rushed to the pit along with other villagers to look for the children.
"Initially, we were told that only one of them was feared drowned. I saw their clothes and slippers and started searching for the others in the nearby bushes. The police were informed too," said Singh.
Over the past few days, destiny had anyway been harsh on Singh and his family. The man, in his mid-30s, lost his job a few days ago after the iron-manufacturing unit where he worked shut down and was finding it difficult to make ends meet.
His wife, Poonam Devi, said Amit and Durgesh were watching TV when there was a power cut and they decided to go out and play. "All these days, I was praying to God to ease our sufferings a bit. But God decided to take my two kids away," sobbed Poonam, who has another son and daughter.
Bal Krishan's son, Varun (8), was having lunch when his friend, Piyush (11), asked him to join them for a game. "I told him not to go out as it was drizzling, but he did not listen to me. Look at us now. He has left us forever," said Krishnan, a daily-wage labourer.
The villagers alleged that the land where the pit was dug had remained like that for almost a year. "There was never a wall around it. The last few days of rainfall had filled the pit to the brim. Anyone who did not know the area would mistake it for a pond," a villager said.
Officers of the fire department who were part of the search said the pit had several deep areas where the kids might have strayed. "Initially, the water is around a foot deep. But then, there are several areas where the water is at least 12ft deep. The kids were obviously unaware of the depth in the middle of the pit," said Ramesh Saini, who was in the rescue team.