IRIKKUR (Kannur): For them it was a day of dismal memories. Many of them, including students, teachers and parents, came with flowers. And they paid tributes to the 10 children who were with them till this day last year.
Apart from the children and teachers of Perumannu Sreenaraya Vilasam School, scores of people turned up on the school premises to pay tributes to the children who were crushed to death by a vehicle gone berserk just in front of the school exactly a year ago.
After a morning assembly led by the headmistress, the children, the teachers and the local people went to the place where the children’s bodies had been laid to rest. The parents of the children killed broke down as they reached the graveyard just a furlong away from the school. Politicians and representatives of the people too joined the grieving crowd.
A memorial meet was held at the school later and a copy of the souvenir brought out on the occasion was handed over by the DEO to Sudeshna, a survivor of the tragedy. The souvenir carried poems and stories about the children who perished on that fateful day. Then followed visits to the houses of the victims.
December 4 was no holiday for the school. But to the students of the school, the day, of course, meant much more than a holiday.