Dasara turned tragic for the family of businessman Damarla Koti Nageswara Rao.They
were preparing to start the festivities on October 6, when they got a
phone call around 10.30 am informing them of the death of their eldest
son Srinath while trekking on the Indo-Nepal border.Twenty-six-year-old
Srinath, a student of Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) at the
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), died on October 6
while trekking in Sikkim reportedly due to altitude sickness.The
body was brought to their house at Shanmukha Apartments on the Dharam
Karam Road on Sunday and the last rites were performed."Srinath wanted to be among the best managers in the banking sector.He had on hand a job offer from BNP Paribas, the European leader in global banking and financial services.He
was to join the company after completing the course in December,"
55-year-old Nageswara Rao said in a choked voice sitting in front of a
photo of his son after completing the last rites."Srinath was never keen on mountaineering or adventure sports.As the campus was closed for Dasara vacation, Srinath joined his friends in the expedition.His
only ambition was to reach the highest levels of success in banking
sector," said the grief-stricken father recalling the ambitions,
achievements and memories of Srinath. Srinath had had an excellent academic record since his school days.After
completing B.Tech (computer science) from NIT, Kurukshetra, he worked
for Oracle, Bangalore from 2006-10 and bagged the 'most valuable player'
in sales consultant and 'best debutante' awards for three consecutive
years - 2008, 2009 and 2010. He secured 99.7 score in the Common Admission Test (CAT) and joined the IIM-Calcutta in 2010. At the IIM he was elected as the recruitment coordinator by 69 percent of students, Nageswara Rao said."We
lost our son due to the sheer negligence of the travel agency, TAAS,
which failed to provide medical aid to Srinath when he suffered altitude
sickness.We came to know that a foreign woman in the group also became sick but she recovered.It's a great loss to my family," said a teary-eyed Nageswara Rao showing the awards won by Srinath.Srinath was part of a 40-member group, comprising 26 foreigners and IIM students, which was on its way from Yuksom to Dzongri."Yuksom is 138 kilometres from Gangtok, which is a gateway to Dzongri.The Yuksom-Dzongri trek takes around five days to complete.A road exists only till Yuksom.From there, trekkers have to take the help of guides and porters to reach Dzongri.The group started from Kolkata on September 29.On
the way to Dzongri on Sunday, Srinath complained of dizziness, headache
and body weakness, the symptoms associated with altitude sickness. “He tried to come back to Yuksom on October 6 with a guide and some porters.He could only reach Tshoka, a midway point on the Dzongri trek," said his brother Sunil, an assistant manager at the IDBI Bank.Sunil brought the body from Sikkim late on Saturday night.
By Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com
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