01 September,2017 08:50 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Hours after his wife and two children threw a surprise party for Sayad Zafar, their lifeless bodies were discovered in the rubble from the Bhendi Bazar building collapse
Sayad Zafar and his wife Reshma
Sayad Zafar could never have imagined his 47th birthday would be the last time the family would be together. Hours after his wife and two children threw a surprise party for him, their lifeless bodies were discovered in the rubble from the Hussaini building collapse. Zafar's body was found late last night.
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On Wednesday, Zafar's son Zama, 18, daughter Fatima 14 and wife Reshma 40 hosted a birthday party for him, also inviting Zafar's brother Anwar and his children. "They cut the cake at midnight. Anwar's children wanted to stay with Zafar, but since they had school in the morning, they returned home the same night. It would have been even more tragic if Anwar's children had stayed on. Who would have thought Zafar's birthday would end like this? We all are shocked," said Anwar Bhojani, a relative.
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Zafar's friends recounted how they watched the building go down while waiting for the birthday boy. "We called him downstairs for tea at 8.10 am, but he said he was busy with some work and would come in 10 minutes. As we were waiting for him, the building collapsed before our eyes," said Salman Rizvi, a childhood friend.
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"Had he come a little earlier, he would have been alive today," he added.
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