Date:23/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/23/stories/2005042308240500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Agonising wait for family, friends of infosys techie

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

The Indian High Commission says, "the boy is still missing", while the Australian authorities are still searching The Indian High Commission says: "The boy is still missing." However, the Australian authorities are still searching for him.

HYDERABAD: Twenty-six days after an Infosys techie went missing from a beach in Australia, his parents, relatives and friends and the company have not lost hope. They have not let go of the belief that he will come back.

On March 27, Manish Tarafder (25), was washed away from Sydney's Bondi Beach and dragged into the deep seas by a flash current as three of his colleagues watched, helplessly. His name has been figuring as `missing' in official lists ever since.

Working in the Hyderabad facility of Infosys Technologies, the youngster was sent to Melbourne, Australia in October last on a client servicing assignment. In Sydney for the Easter break with a childhood friend, Erka Basu from Kolkata, and two others, the quartet fancied a dip in the sea. They were in the water off Bondi beach for hardly an hour when a flash rip tide generated a strong undertow, which pulled them and eight others into the Pacific Ocean within seconds.

Hours later, 11 of the dozen were washed ashore alive, but it has been more than three weeks now and there has been no sign of Manish. There has been no official reaction yet from the Indian High Commission except the admission that "the boy is still missing", while the Australian authorities are said to be still searching. Manish's friends and relatives continue to cling desperately to the hope that he will surface onshore again.

The office of the Infosys CEO, Nandan Nilekani, told The Hindu that they were in continuous touch with the Australian officials and the Indian High Commission in Australia and that they had been told about Manish being on the "missing persons" list. "We understand the sensitivity of the situation and the emotional trauma it has on his family and are trying our best to manage the uncertainty around this with empathy and compassion," he said.