BENGALURU: No one knows what Sujata and Vinayak Mungarwadi’s final moments were like when they died on Monday night in inclement weather while trekking in the high-altitude Sahastra Tal near Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand.
However, their friends are certain of one thing — if they had the chance to save the other during the blizzard, they would have done so, even at the cost of one’s own life.The friends know what Sujata and Vinayak meant to each other from the time they met during their college days. The couple even shared the same birthday: Oct 3. They were inseparable in life. Even in death, they remained together.
Sujata, 51, was a trustee of NGO Uttara Karnataka Sneha Loka (UKSL), and Vinayak, 54, a mechanical engineer and co-founder of Commverse Global. He actively supported Sujata as a member of UKSL. They are survived by their mothers and two children — Aditi, 28, who works with a startup, and Ishaan, 21, an engineering student.
The couple was passionate about environmental causes. “They would celebrate World Environment Day with great enthusiasm and plant saplings along with UKSL members,” Prakash Rajagoli from Bengaluru recalled.
Avid trekkers, Sujata and Vinayak were devotees of Shiva and Parvathi and would trek to Srisailam Temple in Andhra twice a year. “They joined the group after two people cancelled their trips,” said Gangadhar Wali, UKSL chief. Their bodies are expected to reach their home in JP Nagar Friday morning.