The London community hollowed out by Air India crash

Telegraph

10 hours ago

When Air India flight 171 went down, it sent shock waves across the world, but the grief was particularly acute in a close-knit Hindu community of north-west London.
At the International Siddhashram Shakti Centre in Harrow, at least 20 members of the Hindu ashram lost loved ones when the Air India flight hit a medical hostel just seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday.
Shri Rajrajeshwar Guruji, the temple's spiritual leader, led multi-faith prayers and a candlelit vigil in memory of the dead on Saturday.
'We all need to be united to support our community. It is very sad news,' he said, adding the prayer 'God, please do not give this kind of death to others.
'People, they are born, and their death is a normal cycle for the human being, but this type of death is unbelievable.'
Representatives from Sikh, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Zoroastrian communities also led prayers at the ceremony, where the Guruji and Cllr Anjana Patel, the newly elected mayor of Harrow, revealed their personal connections to the tragedy.
Shri Rajrajeshwar Guruji recalled his recent encounter with the former Gujarat chief minister, Vijay Rupani, who had visited the temple for tea.
'I remember he was sitting in my office, having tea, and suddenly, on the 12th of June, I heard the message. The person who I know very well, he is no more,' he said.
'Two weeks ago, I was talking to one of the family members [who were on the flight], and he was travelling back to India. He said, 'Guruji when I will be back, we will get together'. Now, the day is never going to come back.' The spiritual leader said the 'big lesson' from this tragedy is 'please be kind with your family and friends'.
Attendees became visibly emotional after Cllr Anjana Patel addressed the plight of two young girls from Harrow who were orphaned in the crash.
'The saddest incident we have got here in Harrow is that one parent had already died here because of cancer,' she said, as the crowd audibly gasped.
Their father, Arjun Patoliya, 37, had flown to India to scatter his wife's ashes. Bharti Patel, 43, had died of cancer just three weeks earlier.
'The husband goes to do the rituals in India, and coming back on that flight, he also is obviously no more,' said the mayor. 'So he has left two very small little girls behind. The girls are now orphans. I really, really do pray and hope that those girls will be very well looked after by all of us.'
The Mayor, whose family is from Gujarat, the Indian state where the crash occurred, revealed she had lost a relative. 'I myself know that my sister-in-law's cousin has passed away in this incident,' she told the congregation.
Speaking to The Telegraph afterwards, she reflected on her own personal grief.
'Every life lost is obviously very important, and I feel very sad about it. But when somebody is close to you, if you know them, even from a distance, it makes you even more sad, and it really breaks your heart when it happens,' she said.
A patron of the temple's charity, Simon Ovens, who also acts as the King's representative, read out a personal message from His Majesty to the congregation.
Signed 'Charles R', it said: 'My wife and I have been desperately shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad. Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathies are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appalling, tragic incident across so many nations as they await news of their loved ones.'
His Majesty also paid tribute to 'the heroic efforts of the emergency services and all those providing help and support at this most heartbreaking and traumatic time'.
The MP for East Harrow Bob Blackman also addressed the congregation, remarking on the scale and brutal nature of the community's loss, the death of 53 British nationals, which he said was 'the highest level of deaths of British nationals in an air crash ever.'
'We come together in mourning. When someone dies of illness, or old age, we celebrate their lives, we mourn the fact that they died. But when an air crash happens, completely unpredictable, people are taken away from us immediately, just like that.'
Mr Blackman added: 'And now of course we move onto why did it happen, how did it happen, was there anything that could have been done to prevent this.
'Those investigations will go on and I know that the families will expect the position to be absolutely transparent because without that people will not have closure.'