When a hug and insistence to gift became a premonition
A
hmedabad: A day before the Air India Flight 171 crashed, 17-year-old Prachi Gajjar unknowingly spoke the last words her best friend, Disha Thakkar, 18, would ever hear from her.
"This is the last time I am giving you something," Prachi said jokingly, asking Disha to choose a birthday gift. The words became a grim premonition. Among the victims were Prachi and her father, Jayesh, who were in the Atulyam hostel delivering tiffins to her aunt and others when the plane tore through.
Disha and Prachi had been best friends since Class 9, were inseparable through their school years, and even planned attending the same college the coming term.
On June 11, the two spent the afternoon at Prachi's home, where she was teaching Disha computer coding when she suddenly took her to the terrace as the weather was good. Once there, overcome by emotion, she broke down and tightly hugged a surprised Disha. "She said, 'No matter what, I'll always be with you.
No one can separate us'," Disha recalled. "We hugged and cried. Who knew we were saying goodbye."
Afterwards, Prachi insisted on giving Disha a present for her birthday that was six months ago.
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Prachi dragged a protesting Disha to a garment shop, then back home, laying out her own clothes. "She kept saying, 'This is the last time, I am giving you something'. I wish I had taken it."
On the fateful day, Prachi called Disha to ask if she'd accompany her father and her to deliver tiffins at Atulyam hostel. Disha felt unwell and declined. At 12 noon, Prachi sent her an Instagram message from her father's phone: "Call me in the afternoon, I need to talk to you."
Disha saw the message only that evening and replied, "Okay." At midnight, she felt a sudden urge to speak to her friend. When she called, Prachi's aunt picked up. and broke the news: Prachi, her father, and another aunt had perished. Disha fainted from shock. "I keep thinking, what if I'd gone with her, maybe things would have been different." After the accident, Disha stayed at Prachi's house for a week, going home only for nights.
"I still feel her around me, her voice gently calling, 'Oye'!"
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