Karnataka

One pillar of the family is gone, says Sudarshan’s brother

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Bangalore, September 29: It’s been eight days since B.N. Sudarshan (50), a businessman from Ramanagaram, near Bangalore, was killed during the siege of a mall in Kenyan capital Nairobi that began on September 21. His body arrived at the Bengaluru International Airport on Saturday morning from where it was brought to his hometown in Hejjala, near Bidadi around 12.30 p.m. His relatives, friends and colleagues were all there when it arrived. They were all seen crying and hugging, trying to comfort one another. “It feels as if one pillar of the family is not there anymore,” Sudarshan’s brother Ramprasad said, while his sister, Nagamani was inconsolable.

Nagamani’s cousins were trying to console her. One of her cousins, Chandrika, said: “Nagamani was so happy the day Sudarshan left for Kenya. We never thought such a thing would happen. He was such a good human being.”

Among the sea of people at the funeral was 90-year-old Anjanappa, who has known the family for decades and had taken care of Sudarshan as a child. Even as his hands on the walking stick trembled, he said, “I have known him since he was a baby and have seen him grow up in front of my eyes. But, this was an unexpected way in which death befell him,” he said before making an inconspicuous exit from the funeral.

Relatives said that though Sudarshan was mostly travelling in connection with exports business, he would make it a point to visit the family twice a month.

Mr. Ramprasad recalled the family’s anxious moments during the days before Sudarshan was identified as one among the dead people. “He was lying there unidentified for three days before the Indian Embassy authorities could verify his identity. It was when his mobile phone was inaccessible that we grew concerned and I did not even know how to contact him. I then called my daughter Aditi to check his emails as she knew the account password and later got in touch with the officials concerned,” he recounted to his relatives and family friends at the funeral.

He praised their family friend Anil, who had flown to Kenya soon after Sudarshan’s body had been identified and had helped complete all formalities in Nairobi before arriving for the funeral on Saturday which went on till late afternoon.

He was cremated at the Banashankari crematorium.

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