BHOPAL/AHMEDABAD: Dr Prashant Bagricha (57) sat teary-eyed at his residence in MP’s Vidisha, pleading with anyone who would console him, “Please help me find my sister”.Canadian citizen Swati Bagricha, younger by seven years, was to be home to tie a rakhi on him after a short pilgrimage to Kailash-Mansarovar.Gujarat-origin American Mukti Patel faced the same agonising wait for news about her sister Akansha (32). Akansha was on the Mansarovar pilgrimage with her husband Ishan (32), her father Umesh Kumar Patel (56) and Ishan’s mother Shilpa Patel (59).The Patels’ last known location was Hotel Kailash, about 1.5km from the area destroyed by the torrent from the glacial lake outburst.In Ahmedabad, Motera resident Dhaval Raval was waiting for word on his Australia-based brother Bhavin, who travelled to Nepal with two friends from Brisbane and had apparently been planning to “surprise” his extended family in Gujarat after completing the pilgrimage on Sept 5.Swati, an IT professional living in Toronto for 15 years, was part of a group of 77 PIOs from various countries associated with Sadhguru Foundation.The youngest of three siblings, she flew into India on Aug 6 with her 15-year-old daughter and set off two days later, due home for Rakhi. A day before the glacial surge, Swati messaged the family that she would reach Kathmandu via the China-Tibet immigration checkpoint.“Since then, there has been no word,” Bagricha said.The Patels, with roots in Gujarat’s Kheda and Bhadran, had planned the pilgrimage for months and trained for it.“My sister would often be at the gym to ensure she was fit for the trip,” Mukti said.“It was my brother-in-law Ishan’s birthday. I texted him a greeting and received a response around 8.20am Nepal time, about 10 minutes before the disaster. We have had no contact with them since,” she added.“We have contacted the Indian and Nepalese embassies, various agencies and other authorities for information. We are still waiting to hear from them.”Bhavin’s last call to his brother Dhaval was around 6.30pm on Aug 25.“They (Bhavin and his two Australia-based friends) were to cross the border the next day,” he said. In Brisbane, Bhavin’s wife Aarti and their two sons have spent the past two days holding on to hope and prayers.
