Shreyas laid to rest as racing fraternity pays its last respects

Sandhya Jayanthi S leant in with her right ear towards Shreyas Hareesh’s nose with a determined look in her eyes. She was looking at nothing or no one in particular, but she was listening for her 13-year-old son’s next breath. All the while hoping this, the funeral she was wailing at, was but a nightmare.

Sandhya will never hear Shreyas breathe again, no one will, and this funeral was as real as the body of her son which lay in front of their house in Sahakara Nagar on Monday afternoon.

In an effort to find a semblance of closure, she called on Amit Arora (the race director of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship - the event in which Shreyas succumbed to a gruesome crash on Saturday) and held onto his hands pleadingly, looking for answers.

“Was it the helmet? Was it the helmet? How did this happen?” she shrieked as Arora broke down. With no answers to be had, Sandhya went back to her son, a ear to his nose again.

All this while, Hareesh Parandhaman - Shreyas’ father - stood still, unwavering. Only the clenching of his jaws or the occasional breakdown gave away that he was in mourning.

He was there when the spindly baby was born in his arms in 2010. He was the one who introduced the boy to racing.

He was the one who decided to give up his job for the boy to become a great racer. He was the one who convinced the entire family to trust the process and let the boy race.

He was the one who had travelled with Shreyas to every race, including training in Spain recently. He was the one who was instrumental in Shreyas’ evolution from ‘The Bengaluru Kid’ to the most promising racer on the Indian circuit.

Now, he was here, holding his wife and consoling his inconsolable daughter while holding back his own tears as his boy’s body was moved into a hearse, draped in Tri-colour and to the background score of the National anthem.

All the while, some of the finest racers in the country were in attendance, including 300-odd others, and everyone was still to come to grips with the happenings of the last couple of days.