On April 7, Jitesh Vasudev from Ghaziabad received a devastating phone call. His 21-year-old son Kartik had been shot dead in Toronto.
Kartik Vasudev had moved to Canada to study just three months ago and had happily settled into his life there, his father told Humans of Bombay.
“I’d look forward to his video calls -- he’d take us around in Canada,” Jitesh Vasudev said. “Our family group would buzz with all the pictures he’d share. He was so happy! Recently, he’d even gotten a part-time job. He was in fact on his way to the office when it happened.”
Kartik Vasudev had been attacked outside a subway station in Toronto. He died of his injuries at a hospital.
Read: Indian student shot dead in Toronto, EAM Jaishankar expresses condolences
"Kartik was just outside the Sherbourne subway station last Thursday when he was approached by a stranger,” the police had said. “Unprovoked, this man shot Kartik multiple times, killing him.”
They described the incident as a “random act of violence”.
The student’s family had spoken to him on the day of the attack. His father said they exchanged laughs like usual.
“I remember I made fun of his strawberry shake and asked, ‘Wahan bhi Roohafza? (you are having Rooh Afza there too?),” his father told Humans of Bombay. “I loved annoying him. Little did I know that would be the last laughter we’d share together.”
A few hours later, Jitesh Vasudev got a call from his son’s roommate, telling him that he had not been answering calls. He asked her to get in touch with the police.
Jitesh Vasudev recalled that two hours later, he was informed that his son had been shot.
“I broke down,” he was quoted as saying by Humans of Bombay. “How could this be? My 21-year-old boy? Who would do this? I had no answers! When I told my wife, all she kept saying was, ‘Aap jhoot bol rahe ho (you are lying). Nothing has happened!’ We cried together.”
Jitesh Vasudev described his son as doting and dependable. Before moving to Canada, he had never lived away from home. But when he expressed his wish to study abroad, his father got on board.
“He cleared all his exams and even got into his dream university in Canada,” Jitesh Vasudev told Humans of Bombay. “I was proud! But when the time came for him to leave, 3 months ago, I wasn’t ready to see him go. But I knew how excited he was. So, while seeing him off, I said what every Dad says -- dhyan rakhna (take care).”
The police have arrested the suspect in Kartik Vasudev’s killing. But the student's grieving family is yet to receive his body.
“I’m not sure how my hands that taught him how to ride a cycle will also light his pyre,” the student’s father told Humans of Bombay. “It still feels like he’s gone for a trip and will be back home anytime soon. I’ll be flying down to Canada soon for the proceedings; I won’t rest till I get justice for Kartik.”
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