Mumbai: Chetna Kolekar (59) and Vinod Kolekar (63), the Mumbai couple on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that vanished mid-flight on Saturday, have lived at Sukh Sagar Housing Society on Borivali Link Road for the past 28 years, according to their neighbours. Swanand (23), the couple's younger son, was also on the flight.
The Kolekars, who live in a flat on the third floor, were on their way to Beijing to meet their elder son Sanved, whom they had got married just four months ago, in November 2013.
Neighbours showed Mirror pictures of Chetna and Vinod performing a pooja organised by the society. "All three of them were very excited about the trip. It was the first they were going abroad together to meet Sanved. They have been living here for 28 years and we have all celebrated many festivals together. Today, its like our own family members have gone missing," said a neighbour.
Satish Gogale, the society's secretary, said, "We are very shocked and are just praying for a miracle. Most of us have not been able to come to terms with what has happened." He added that local MP Sanjay Nirupam had visited the soceity and promised that the government would offer all its help to relatives of the missing family.
The family of N Chandrika Sharma, 50, one of the five Indians on board the Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, has been traumatised since hearing of the plane's disappearence on Saturday. "As of now all that we have been told is that the plane is missing," said colleague and family friend N Venugopal.
Chandrika's husband K S Narendran is a management consultant in Chennai. The couple have a daughter, Meghna, who is studying for a BA in English literature at Ambedkar University in Delhi. She arrived in Chennai soon after hearing the news. Chandrika, an executive secretary with the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), left Chennai for Mongolia on Friday to attend a conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
The missing quintet of Indians on board also includes 44-year-old Kranti Pralhad Shirsath from Pune, who was on her way to meet her husband Prahlad, who works for an NGO in Pyongyang, North Korea. There was an atmosphere of gloom in the Shirsaths' home on Khandoba Temple Road near Ramnadi on Sunday afternoon, as Mirror went to speak to the family of the missing woman, who lives with her sons Yashwant (11) and Rahul (16) and her mother-in-law.
Satish Shirsath, Pralhad younger brother's, who arrived in Pune from Sangamner, said, "Kranti flew out of Mumbai on March 7 to visit my brother in Pyongyang. She was going there because this is his last month there. Pralhad was planning to come back to India in April."
The couple's two sons study in the city - the younger a Std 5 student of the Sanskriti School in Pirangut and the elder a Std 11 science student at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology. Rahul, the elder son, who has two more papers left in his final examination, said, "My younger brother has been told what has happened. We have not hidden anything from him. My mother's birthday is coming up on March 21. The last I spoke to her was when she called me after she was seated in the aircraft. She told me the announcements were going on and I wished her a very happy journey."
10/03/14 Virat Singh & Danish Khan/Mumbai Mirror
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The Kolekars, who live in a flat on the third floor, were on their way to Beijing to meet their elder son Sanved, whom they had got married just four months ago, in November 2013.
Neighbours showed Mirror pictures of Chetna and Vinod performing a pooja organised by the society. "All three of them were very excited about the trip. It was the first they were going abroad together to meet Sanved. They have been living here for 28 years and we have all celebrated many festivals together. Today, its like our own family members have gone missing," said a neighbour.
Satish Gogale, the society's secretary, said, "We are very shocked and are just praying for a miracle. Most of us have not been able to come to terms with what has happened." He added that local MP Sanjay Nirupam had visited the soceity and promised that the government would offer all its help to relatives of the missing family.
The family of N Chandrika Sharma, 50, one of the five Indians on board the Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, has been traumatised since hearing of the plane's disappearence on Saturday. "As of now all that we have been told is that the plane is missing," said colleague and family friend N Venugopal.
Chandrika's husband K S Narendran is a management consultant in Chennai. The couple have a daughter, Meghna, who is studying for a BA in English literature at Ambedkar University in Delhi. She arrived in Chennai soon after hearing the news. Chandrika, an executive secretary with the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), left Chennai for Mongolia on Friday to attend a conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
The missing quintet of Indians on board also includes 44-year-old Kranti Pralhad Shirsath from Pune, who was on her way to meet her husband Prahlad, who works for an NGO in Pyongyang, North Korea. There was an atmosphere of gloom in the Shirsaths' home on Khandoba Temple Road near Ramnadi on Sunday afternoon, as Mirror went to speak to the family of the missing woman, who lives with her sons Yashwant (11) and Rahul (16) and her mother-in-law.
Satish Shirsath, Pralhad younger brother's, who arrived in Pune from Sangamner, said, "Kranti flew out of Mumbai on March 7 to visit my brother in Pyongyang. She was going there because this is his last month there. Pralhad was planning to come back to India in April."
The couple's two sons study in the city - the younger a Std 5 student of the Sanskriti School in Pirangut and the elder a Std 11 science student at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology. Rahul, the elder son, who has two more papers left in his final examination, said, "My younger brother has been told what has happened. We have not hidden anything from him. My mother's birthday is coming up on March 21. The last I spoke to her was when she called me after she was seated in the aircraft. She told me the announcements were going on and I wished her a very happy journey."
10/03/14 Virat Singh & Danish Khan/Mumbai Mirror
