Chetna Kolekar (59) and Vinod Kolekar (63), the Mumbai couple on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that vanished mid-flight on Saturday, have lived at Sukh Sagar Housing Society on Borivali Link Road for the past 28 years, according to their neighbours. Swanand (23), the couple’s younger son, was also on the flight.The Kolekars, who live in a flat on the third floor, were on their way to Beijing to meet their elder son Sanved, whom they had got married just four months ago, in November 2013.Neighbours showed Mirror pictures of Chetna and Vinod performing a pooja organised by the society. “All three of them were very excited about the trip. It was the first they were going abroad together to meet Sanved. They have been living here for 28 years and we have all celebrated many festivals together. Today, its like our own family members have gone missing,” said a neighbour.Satish Gogale, the society’s secretary, said, “We are very shocked and are just praying for a miracle. Most of us have not been able to come to terms with what has happened." He added that local MP Sanjay Nirupam had visited the soceity and promised that the government would offer all its help to relatives of the missing family.While several residents remembered Chetna and Vinod as a happy, quiet couple who kept to themselves, they said Swanand was more sociable and interacted with everyone. “Swanand was the one who made a point to talk to everyone, including young children from the building. He had completed his computer engineering course last year and on December 28 was even felicitated by the society at an annual function,” added Divya Naik, another neighbour.‘VINOD NEVER WATCHED SHOLAY’Vinod, who moved to Borivali after marriage, grew up in a government colony in Bandra (E) and attended Mahatma Gandhi Vidyamandir, where he excelled. His parents had six children - all boys - of whom Vinod was the third.Childhood friend Ather Khan, now based in London, told Mirror, “He was very intelligent. His son got married in November, which was when I spoke to him and congratulated him. The news of their disappearance is tragic and all their friends are shocked." Khan recalled how Vinod’s friends would tease him for not having watched the blockbuster Sholay as he was always immersed in his studies. “We were a small group of friends and grew up together in Bandra (E).Vinod was quiet and the most-level headed among us," Khan added. Vinod, whose father was in the police department, completed his degree in mechanical engineering from VJTI in 1976. “He helped me in maths as he was very good at it,” said childhood friend Vishwas Bidkar, now a senior banker in Mumbai, who attended the reception of Vinod’s eldest son at Dadar’s King George School in November 2013. “I jokingly asked him whether he had seen Sholay yet,” Bidkar said.He added, “For the entire duration of his engineering course, he immersed himself in studies. Over time our interaction reduced and we rarely met. However, after he finished his engineering, we back back in touch. He told me he had to concentrate on his studies and hence had to sacrifice his social life,” said Bidkar.“In those days there was hardly a youngster who had not watched Sholay. But Vinod was one who never went with us to the movies - not even for Sholay,” he added.After he became an engineer, Vinod joined Mahindra & Mahindra, where he rose to the rank of general manager. “He took voluntary retirement a few years ago and was a very dedicated and loyal worker. I often asked him why he did not change jobs despite getting several offers owing to his experience and expertise. He simply replied that he was happy with his job,” Bidkar said.After their father retired they moved to New Mumbai, from where Vinod shifted to Borivali after marriage.The family of N Chandrika Sharma, 50, one of the five Indians on board the Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, has been traumatised since hearing of the plane's disappearence on Saturday. "As of now all that we have been told is that the plane is missing," said colleague and family friend N Venugopal.Chandrika's husband K S Narendran is a management consultant in Chennai. The couple have a daughter, Meghna, who is studying for a BA in English literature at Ambedkar University in Delhi. She arrived in Chennai soon after hearing the news. Chandrika, an executive secretary with the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), left Chennai for Mongolia on Friday to attend a conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.She flew from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur, from where she was headed to Beijing and onwards to Mongolia, an ICSF spokesman said.Chandrika, originally from Haryana, studied in Delhi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. She did her Masters degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and her M Phil from the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram in 1993. She worked for the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi before joining ICSF as a programme associate in 1995.Everyone close to her remembered her as a warm and modest person. "She is a hardworking, loveable, friendly and dedicated person," said Venugopal, who has worked with her for the past 12 years.Her area of work includes institutional aspects of community-based fisheries resources management, with a special focus on gender issues.As an executive secretary of ICSF her mandate is to represent the collective in national and international forums such as the UN, International Labour Organisation, FAO and so on, Venugopal said. Thomas Kocherry of the National Fishworkers' Forum said that Chandrika's life was dedicated for fisherfolk all over the world.The missing quintet of Indians on board also includes 44-year-old Kranti Pralhad Shirsath from Pune, who was on her way to meet her husband Prahlad, who works for an NGO in Pyongyang, North Korea. There was an atmosphere of gloom in the Shirsaths' home on Khandoba Temple Road near Ramnadi on Sunday afternoon, as Mirror went to speak to the family of the missing woman, who lives with her sons Yashwant (11) and Rahul (16) and her mother-in-law.Satish Shirsath, Pralhad younger brother’s, who arrived in Pune from Sangamner, said, “Kranti flew out of Mumbai on March 7 to visit my brother in Pyongyang. She was going there because this is his last month there. Pralhad was planning to come back to India in April.”The family found out about the tragic disappearance after Malaysia Airlines contacted them on Saturday night and informed them that a search-and-rescue operation has been launched to find the missing craft.Satish said, “The Indian embassy in Malaysia also contacted us and said that if any of us wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur, they would help us get there.” He said Pralhad was in regular touch regarding developments, adding, “My brother had to drive from Pyongyang to Beijing on Saturday night, as no flights were available. He reached there on Sunday morning and was to be in Kuala Lumpur by Sunday evening.”The couple's two sons study in the city – the younger a Std 5 student of the Sanskriti School in Pirangut and the elder a Std 11 science student at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology. Rahul, the elder son, who has two more papers left in his final examination, said, “My younger brother has been told what has happened. We have not hidden anything from him. My mother’s birthday is coming up on March 21. The last I spoke to her was when she called me after she was seated in the aircraft. She told me the announcements were going on and I wished her a very happy journey.”Kranti and Prahlad were married in 1996, and have had a home in Pune ever since.