New Delhi: Ravi Prakash Verma (25), who had studied to become a doctor, was counting the days before a long-awaited reunion. After ten months apart, he would finally see his father.Ravi had completed his MBBS in Kyrgyzstan, He spent two years in Delhi tirelessly preparing for the June 28 Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE).Back in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district, his father, a local school owner, was planning his journey to Delhi to stand by his son during that big milestone moment. That moment never came for Ravi and his father, Ram.Sitting outside the AIIMS Trauma Centre on Sunday, Ram said despite the distance, the two had remained connected through regular phone calls. Ever since he had left home to prepare for NEET in Kota, and later for his MBBS abroad, they had spoken often about Ravi’s studies, his dreams as a doctor.“We would speak regularly, but we were unable to speak on Saturday. I would have never thought that was my last chance to speak to my son,” he said.The eldest of five siblings, Ravi carried the hopes of his family. His mother is a homemaker. His younger siblings are studying. Relatives said he had worked towards his goal of clearing the FMGE and pursuing an MD in Pediatrics. His younger siblings looked up to him.“He had taken a break while studying and gone to drink tea in the mess. His body was found standing as it was in the kitchen, covered in debris,” the father said. He died of suffocation. “Ravi was still breathing when they found him but he died a few minutes later,” he said, recounting how the last sliver of hope vanished.Ram got a call from his son’s friends around 8 pm after they were unable to reach Ravi and feared that he was trapped inside the collapsed structure. The family began making frantic calls, desperately seeking information. By the time Ram reached Delhi, hope had turned into grief.The father, who had been preparing to travel to Delhi to encourage Ravi before one of the most important examinations of his life, is making arrangements to take his son’s body home in an ambulance. “He wanted to become a pediatrician. He used to say he wanted to serve children and make us proud,” a relative said.
