A life cut short, plans left behind...

New Delhi: A mother waiting for him to walk through the door, a friend holding on to a plan to attend a concert with him... But Arpit has gone, killed in a building collapse in south Delhi, leaving behind plans that never will be and fragments of a life cut cruelly short. The building, which housed a boys' paying guest accommodation in Satya Niketan area near Delhi University's South Campus, collapsed around 1.30 pm on Sunday while repair work was underway. Twelve people were rescued from the debris, of whom seven died. Arpit (19), a second-year student of DU's Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College, had returned to Delhi from his home in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday morning after spending Rakshabandhan with his family. His last conversation with his mother, who was later admitted to AIIMS after losing consciousness, was around 12.30 pm. Every call that followed went unanswered. For Arpit's mother, the tragedy is still impossible to comprehend. The moment she saw her 19-year-old son's body, she collapsed and lost consciousness. She had to be admitted to AIIMS. Even after she woke up, she remained overwhelmed by shock, unable to believe that her son was gone. Crying inconsolably, she kept repeating that she would not eat until Arpit came home and fed her with his own hands -- holding on to the smallest, most ordinary ritual of their lives as if it could somehow make his absence untrue. Days earlier, she had tried to keep him from returning to Delhi after Rakshabandhan, gripped by a fear that something might happen to him. 'At the railway station, his sister sneezed, which I considered an ominous sign, and I told him not to travel. But he insisted that his ticket was confirmed and that his classes were also about to start,' she said. He left despite her pleas. The decision has now left her grappling with guilt. 'Why did I let him come to Delhi? I had a feeling that something bad would happen,' she said, breaking down. For his friend Sanskar (20), who had been studying in the same class as Arpit for the past one-and-a-half years, the news was difficult to comprehend. Arpit had told him after boarding the train on Saturday evening that he was on his way back to Delhi.