Early on Thursday morning, Snijo Jose, from Thrissur district in Kerala, was waiting for his wife Anu in his home town Mannuthy. When the bus she had boarded on Wednesday night did not arrive on time, Snijo called her phone, expecting to hear the voice of his wife. But it was someone else who answered and informed him about the horrific bus accident that had taken place in Avinashi, Tamil Nadu, in the wee hours of Thursday. Anu lost her life in the tragic accident.
Anu and Snijo had married just a month ago— they had returned from their honeymoon trip to Delhi and Himachal Pradesh only a few days back, one of Anu's friends told TNM. Snijo works as an engineer in Doha, Qatar and Anu was working in Bengaluru as a paramedic.
With only the information given on the phone to rely on, Snijo rushed to Avinashi. “He did not have any other contacts and had to search across a few hospitals to locate her. It was then that he learnt that she was dead. He was not able to speak with the family when they called. Some of the relatives told me,” Anu's friend said.
“They were on their honeymoon in the first week of February. Anu was staying in Bengaluru with her relatives whom she has lived with since after schooling. She was a jovial, friendly and ambitious woman,” said her friend. Soon after the couple returned to Bengaluru after their honeymoon, Snijo stayed there till February 17 and then went home to Thrissur. Since he was scheduled to leave to Doha soon, Anu too was on her way to Thrissur from Bengaluru. With a holiday for Maha Shivratri in Karnataka, she wanted to meet her husband in Kerala before he left for work.
Another tragic death in the accident that claimed 19 lives was that of 28-year-old Sanoop, who worked as an engineer in Bengaluru. Sanoop was on his way to meet his fiancée, who works in Ernakulam. While Sanoop was from Payyanur in Kannur district, his fiancée is from Nileswarm in Kasaragod. The Kerala couple had been engaged recently.
Sanoop, who did his BTech from TKM Engineering college in Kollam, went onto pursue an MTech from the prestigious National Institute of Technology in Trichy, Tamil Nadu. One of his friends from NIT wrote on Facebook that Sanoop was planning to surprise his fiancée— she was unaware that he was on his way to meet her.
Tragically, Sanoop's body was among the last to be identified as his face was severely mangled in the accident. Photos on Facebook show that he was a frequent traveller and interested in road trips.
“He was very good at his studies. He scored good marks in the entrance to his undergraduate as well as postgraduate degree. Though he was focused on his studies, he was actively involved in all activities at his native place,” says one of Sanoop’s friends who was with him in an arts and sports club near his house in Payyanur.