Lucknow: The cries of grieving families echoed outside the KGMU mortuary on Monday night as postmortems of the 15 victims killed in the Aliganj gaming studio fire continued for nearly seven hours. Distraught relatives waited through the night, mourning their loved ones.One of the victims, Nilesh’s father, collapsed after seeing his son’s body. As he was placed on a stretcher, Nilesh’s sister broke down, clinging to him and sobbing, “Bhaiyya chala gaya, Papa… Papa utho” (My brother is gone, Papa… wake up).Twenty-three-year-old Sukhmani Singh had left for work that morning as usual. By afternoon, routine turned into a tragedy. His father, Prabhujyot Singh, recalled receiving a desperate call around 2.30 pm.“Papa, aag lag gayi hai, bacha lo (Dad, there is a fire, save me),” Sukhmani pleaded.“Those were among the last words I heard from him,” his father said, struggling to hold back tears.Outside the mortuary, Sukhmani’s elder brother, Sahiban Singh, remembered him as an energetic young man who had spent seven years building a life in Lucknow.“He left home smiling in the morning. None of us imagined we would receive his body by night,” he said.For Abdul Rehman, the job at the animation centre symbolised hope after years of hardship. “He started working at 18 because his father is paralysed. He was the sole breadwinner,” said his friend Shadan.Shadan added that Abdul had called home to say he was trapped inside the building. “His mother still cannot believe he is gone. Everything changed within minutes,” he said, breaking down while receiving his friend’s body.Nisha Srivastava from Sitapur is haunted by a call she could not answer. Her brother, Aditya Srivastava, a 3D character artist, was among those killed.“At around 2.30 pm, Aditya called me, but I could not answer,” she said.Nisha said survivors later told the family that several youngsters, including Aditya, locked themselves inside a bathroom to escape the thick smoke. “There were 14 or 15 people with him. They were trying to save themselves,” she said.Her cousin, Bhuvan Srivastava, who was also inside the building, survived after jumping out of a window. “He asked Aditya to jump too, but my brother could not gather the courage,” she added.Mohammad Ammar’s family said he also managed to call home during the chaos. “He told us everyone was trapped and there was no way out,” a relative said.The bodies of Soumya and Anamika from West Bengal, and Jaini from Madhya Pradesh, were handed over to their families on Tuesday morning. Anamika’s mother fainted upon seeing her daughter’s body.As dawn broke, families left in ambulances carrying their loved ones — along with shattered dreams and haunting memories.
