A whimsical biriyani stop turns tragic

"I even made fun of her, asking her 'you want to have biriyani even though you have dental problems?'," Golam Mohiuddin narrated the last conversation he had with his wife Lutfun Nahar Lucky, a 47-year-old senior teacher at Viqarunnisa Noon School & College, last night.

Mere hours later, he was staring dumbfounded and grief-stricken at the dead bodies of Lucky and their daughter Jannatin Tazri, 23, a student of BRAC University.

Accompanied by Tazri, Lucky had gone to Popular Diagnostic to get treatment for a toothache. After an X-ray, both were on their way back to their Shantinagar home, said Golam.

"I do not know what my wife was thinking, but she wanted to have biriyani on the way back. She even called me before going there, and I joked about it.

"When I came to know about the fire incident in the building, I immediately rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), and found their lifeless bodies," Golam told The Daily Star around 3:30am at the DMCH premises.

An inconsolable Golam kept repeating that he should have been at the Green Cozy Cottage Shopping Mall on the capital's Bailey Road with his wife and daughter. Maybe he could have found a way out of the burning building and escaped the inferno that extinguished the lives of at least 46 people.

"I don't know how I will be able to collect the bodies and take their lifeless bodies home."

Meanwhile, the acting principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School & College in a condolence message said Lucky was a senior teacher at the institute and her daughter a former student.

All the members of the governing body, teachers, officers, employees, students, and parents of the institutes are saddened by their deaths.

"We pray for the forgiveness of their departed souls and express our deepest sympathy and condolences to the bereaved family. May the Most Merciful and Forgiving Allah grant them Jannatul Ferdous," the statement reads.