Trapped Within the Sound of Silence

Shekhar and Neelam Krishnamoorthy release a single dedicated to their children who died in the Uphaar cinema tragedy more than two decades ago, as a reminder that music can soothe the pain of longing

- IRAM ARA IBRAHIM

How do you contain grief in the drawing room of an apartment in an upscale Noida neighbourhood where trees give shade to bungalows from the summer sun and rainy winds? How do you let days become weeks and months become years when life has stood still around a fateful June afternoon 27 years ago? Outside, it is a wet August day; grey and humid, it weighs heavy on the soul. Inside, Unnati will always be 17 years old and her brother, Ujjwal, all of 13. They gaze out from photo frames on a wooden cabinet next to a decorated wall, smiling, laughing, hugging and posing. Their parents Shekhar and Neelam Krishnamoorthy have spent decades looking at the photos while age caught up with them, unnoticed. In all these years, one thing has remained unchanged in the Krishnamoorthy home— the grit to not let the conversation stop around the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy that took Unnati and Ujjwal away from them, no matter how much it hurts. This time around, they have bared their hearts in a special song and let music speak their words of sorrow.

Shekhar’s new number, Tanhaa Tanhaa