Hundreds began walking towards Srinivas’s residence with prayers for Vishu’s and his mother’s departed souls and curses for the killers on their lips. Srinivas’s family was among those who had lived the longest in the area and most of the residents knew them personally. Almost all of them had had a meal at his restaurant at least once in their lives.

The ladies of the locality knew Madhavi and had often interacted with her at the temple or at social gatherings. Vishu was a member of the local cricket club and had aspired to play for India as a fast bowler. Some of the teenagers had either studied with him at some point or had shared his enthusiasm for science and martial arts.

The mourners, who stood around in small groups, could not stop talking about the tragedy. They shared their outrage at the two deaths and how the young boy and his mother had not deserved it. Vishu had been butchered by goons who had lain in wait for him in the cramped alley. The question troubling many was how the assailants had known their prey would be in the alley at that time. Was it a coincidence or a conspiracy?

‘He was too young to have harmed anyone. He had no time for negativity. He was Tuticorin’s prodigy but did not live to see the day his drone would get the rave reviews that it was destined for,’ rued an architect, Michael, who knew the family.

‘People will talk, talk and talk, for hours, days and weeks, and then they will forget about it. Till they are reminded periodically by news reports about the case, the arrests made by the police, if at all, the bail granted or not granted to the accused and, eventually, his conviction or acquittal,’ a neighbour of Srinivas was heard telling another neighbour.

Another neighbour, Suleiman Shaikh, an office-bearer of the Majlisi Defence League, also spoke of the loss of Sadiq’s life in an unwarranted act of arrogance and violence on the part of the temple guards. He spoke about Sadiq’s orphaned daughters, their uncertain futures and the fact that Sadiq’s wife was inconsolable and had gone mute. He tried to remind the group he was standing with about Srinivas’s decades-long association with a right-wing organization, Hindu Ekta Manch.

Srinivas was seen at the spot when the assault on Sadiq had happened, but neither he nor his colleagues in the temple’s management trust had bothered to visit Sadiq’s house to pay condolences. ‘My heart weeps for Vishu but so it does for Sadiq too,’ Suleiman continued with his rant, without noticing that no one in the group had uttered a word, of support or otherwise, in response to his opinions.