She had booked her ticket through Tatkal

In a few hours, 24-year-old Parchuri Swathi would have come home to a warm welcome.

Her homecoming after a gap of four months was eagerly awaited since it was the first visit after Swathi landed a job at TCS Bangalore in January this year. She had applied for a week’s leave from work to spend time with family.

But she walked into a death trap when a bomb exploded in the S4 compartment of Guwahati Express minutes after the train chugged into Chennai Central station on Thursday morning. Swathi was the only casualty in the explosion, police sources said. Two more persons from AP are suspected to have suffered injuries.

``Swathi told us she had booked the ticket through Tatkal since the reservations were not available. Her father is supposed to leave to Vijayawada and bring her back, but the disaster took her away from us,” said her grandmother, Katragadda Rajyalakshmi with tears welling up in her eyes.

Her parents, Parchuri Ramakrishna and Kamakshi, residing at 7/6 Srinagar have rushed to Chennai. They broke the news to relatives at 10 a.m. Swathi has a sibling, Pradyumna, who is now pursuing engineering course at IIT, Mumbai.

``My granddaughter is a precious child who excelled in her studies,’’ said Satyanarayana.

Swathi studied up to Class 10 at KLP Public School, completed Intermediate from St. Ann’s College and later pursued B. Tech (EEE) from JNTU, Hyderabad. She got through GATE and pursued M. Tech from the same institution.

Her parents, who hail from Jagarlamudi village are from agricultural background. They moved to Guntur to provide better opportunities for their children and have recently bought an apartment.

Family sources said Swathi had intended to settle down and told her parents that she would be marrying her class mate from Warangal.

Laiqh Khan from Bangalore writes:

Swati was residing in Whitefield in Bangalore.

A spokesperson for the TCS in Bangalore said: "We are deeply shocked and saddened at this unfortunate loss of life of our colleague in this tragic incident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time".