NEW DELHI: “Mom my first love, Dad my strength.” That was the tattoo on Amar Kataria’s hand—the mark by which his family finally recognised him at the mortuary on Monday night. Hours earlier, he had called his father to say he was leaving work, a routine conversation that now echoes in the quiet of their Srinivaspuri home.
The 34-year-old pharmaceutical bizman was among those killed in the blast. He had shut his shop in Bhagirath Palace at around 6:30 pm and was on his way home. When his phone went unreachable, his family assumed he was caught in traffic. By the time the news came, hope had already begun to fray.
Amar was the only son of his parents. He lived with them, his wife, their three-year-old son, and a married sister. His father runs an electronics shop in Mayur Vihar. “He called every evening before leaving work,” a relative said. “That day was no different—until it was.”
An MBA, Amar had started his career in the corporate world before setting up his own business. Friends describe him as ambitious yet soft-spoken, a man who spent Sundays at home playing with his son or helping his father at the shop.
On Tuesday morning, the police handed over his body after post-mortem. At home, grief has settled like a shadow. His son keeps asking when his father will return. “We tell him papa will be back soon,” said a relative, holding back tears.
The words etched on Amar’s arm—“Mom my first love, Dad my strength”—now read like a message he left behind, a final trace of love from a son who never made it home.
