On Tuesday, Vinod Kumar was away from home, as is customary for him to be for several days while seeking masonry work, when he received the alarming phone call.

Every woman in his family, spanning three generations, had perished, trampled in a stampede.

Throughout the remainder of the day, Mr. Kumar and his three sons visited various hospitals in search of their relatives among the deceased individuals, totaling 121, who lost their lives during a chaotic incident at a large gathering for a spiritual guru.

Near midnight, the bodies of his wife, Raj Kumari, aged 42, and his daughter, Bhumi, aged 9, were discovered at the government hospital in Hathras, positioned on large ice slabs alongside numerous others in the corridor.

Mr. Kumar lamented at his wife’s feet, questioning, ‘Why did you abandon me in such a manner? Who will reprimand the children and encourage them to attend school now?’

However, he could not allow himself to be completely consumed by sorrow at this moment. His mother’s body had not yet been discovered. He leaned down to lift his daughter for a final embrace. Bhumi was dressed in a yellow top, and her hair was secured in a ponytail with a pink hairband.

“Allow her to rest,” Nitin, the eldest son of Mr. Kumar, advised, gently moving the girl away from his father to place her back on the slab so they could resume their search.

I am uncertain about when I will locate my mother’s remains,” he stated, continuing the search. “I wish to perform their final rites simultaneously.

Jaimanti, Mr. Kumar’s mother, served as the matriarch of the family and was its primary devotee to the guru, displaying his posters in their home and regularly attending his sermons.

Suraj Pal, a former police officer who transformed into a spiritual leader referred to as Narayan Sakar Hari or Bhole Baba, served women and families similar to hers, existing on the fringes of India’s profound economic disparity and at the lowest levels of its strict caste system.