Taj lost scent of Jasmine

There will be one regret Maninder Singh, a DIG in the ITBP will always have -- he protected the country's borders all his life but wasn't there to guard Jasmine, his 22-year-old daughter working as a trainee at Trident, when terrorists barged in spraying bullets on Wednesday night.

Jasmine Bhurji was one of the first to be gunned down during the Mumbai attacks Wednesday night. She was a Mumbai resident managing the five-star Oberoi Hotel, having the sad fate of working the front desk that night.

"Jasmine took two bullet hits from terrorists on her arm and near the ear. She was rushed to hospital but could not make it," Jasmine's friend said over phone. The crestfallen parents rushed to Mumbai almost immediately.

"When terrorists struck, Jasmine was working as a hostess at the hotel's Kandhar restaurant," the young trainee's relative told TOI on Thursday. "They (terrorists) entered the premises and started firing indiscriminately." Having finished her schooling from St Xavier's high school in Chandigarh, Jasmine had gone in for a management course at the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development, New Delhi.

On Friday, as Jasmine came home dead and cold, there was a painful silence at house number 1083 in Sector 63, Mohali. The hundreds who had gathered to pay their last respects and catch a glimpse of the cheerful girl, seen smiling in most of her photographs, barely whispered. "I have become numb and don't know what to say," was all Singh muttered as the body was taken for cremation in the evening.

"She was always smiling. A good human being, she did not deserve to die like this," her friend Megha Verma said in between sobs.

"Jasmine was a very vibrant girl, very vibrant and very, very cheerful. She would light up any occasion", her uncle Nirbhye Singh Bhui of Surrey, B.C. says of her.

Avnish Hundgenn, the victim's aunt, is equally overcome with emotion as she tries to understand the reasons behind the tragedy. She calls Jasmine "another daughter" and her tears flow endlessly as she contemplates the loss.

"I can understand the feeling she's going through," Hundgeen explains. "I was imagining last night ... my entire family, my brother-in-law, my sister, their son. To board a plane to bring that body back..." He begins to sob openly as he contemplates the death of the innocent that has so terribly crushed his family.

"Why her?" she demands. "She didn't do anything wrong! Never! I can't see how - she's so innocent looking. If you see her face - she would never have done anything wrong in her life."

It's a life that was cut short at just 21.

Avnish has a message to those who committed such unthinkable atrocities.

"See what you're doing!" she demands. "What do you have against innocent people?

Avnish is right and we should all convey this message to brutal terrorist. Jasmine story not only touched me or you, she has touched the hearts of entire nation. Our nation should understand the price she payed for being truthful and loyal towards her work serving hospitality in a same way as her father served nation at the boder for years. In the similar fashion, Taj lost many people in this ghastly attacks. Let's pray to God to help their souls rest in peace and may God give strength to their families to bear this intense pain.