BEYOND WORDS: Naresh Kumar, son of M. Joga Rao, consoling his mother Savitri when the body of his father was brought to their house at Bowenpally on Friday. Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: It was dreadful suspense that the family of Joga Rao had to undergo when he did not return home on Tuesday night even as Mumbai was devastated by the serial blasts.

Joga Rao's relatives and friends from the city and elsewhere tried to contact him on his mobile when the shocking news of the blasts was broken by TV channels but there was no response. His wife Savithri and son Naresh Kumar, residing at Goregaon, Mumbai, started fearing the worst when they did not have any information about his whereabouts. The whole night was spent in nerve-wracking anxiety and searches from hospital to hospital but Wednesday morning brought them some hope as word reached that Joga Rao was admitted to Sion Hospital.

Joga Rao's friend T.V.L. Narasimha Rao, an advocate and former banker, rushed to Mumbai from Nagpur on Wednesday even as the hospital authorities contacted Indusind Bank officials with the help of an old identity card Joga Rao still carried. As news spread, Joga Rao's colleagues and officials from Meshruq Bank rushed to support the family in their hour of distress. "Doctors headed by neurosurgeon Alok Sharma immediately operated upon Joga Rao who was brought there with multiple head injuries. When the family arrived next morning, they were told that another surgery would be performed to remove the shrapnel embedded in the skull," Mr. Narasimha Rao said.

"Even though second neurosurgery was performed successfully, the end came on Thursday night due to cardiac arrest," he said.

" We were hoping that my father would recover and come home as he was stable after the first surgery," a visibly shaken Naresh Kumar said.

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