Hyderabad, India (June 10, 2014): The Beas’s strong currents eventually swept him away, but not before he had managed to save lives of at least four of his batch-mates. Even while M Kiran Kumar’s family and friends grieved his disappearance on Monday, they could not help but be overwhelmed by a sense of pride. The young boy, touted by many as the ‘leader’ of the touring team, stood out as the unsung hero of the Himachal tragedy.
“As soon as the water level started to rise, Kiran sensed trouble and started pushing us towards dry land. By the time we gathered ourselves and turned around to look for him, we realized he was struggling to get out of the water himself. But we still did not lose hope and were almost certain that he would manage to reach the shore safely,” recounted a distraught Pratyusha, one of the few who managed to survive.
Hope is what even his evidently anxious father, Venkataramana, exuded. And this hope was rooted in his son’s capabilities as a swimmer. In between pacing nervously around the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport’s departure terminal — his eyes visibly moist and lips saying a little prayer — the shaken father managed to utter just a few words: “My son knew how to swim. I am sure he would have made it to a safe place.”
A resident of Khammam, Kiran joined VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in 2012 and was specializing in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering. A quick scan of his online social life reveals that like any other 20-something, he too enjoyed watching the latest T-town release on 70mm. ‘Pawan Kalyan’ stands out as his all-time favourite.
But it’s his bunch of friends who appear most prominently and repeatedly on his ‘wall’. Not surprising then that Kiran has many more people than just his father praying hard for his safe return. Even if that needs a miracle.
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