Colleagues, kin, neighbours, and several relatives huddled up at the Century Mills MHADA colony in Prabhadevi on Thursday morning as the mortal remains of 29-year-old flight attendant Pinky Mali were brought in from Baramati for her last rites. The budding air hostess lost her life in the shocking charter plane crash that also claimed Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s life. Her parents, Shiv Kumar Mali and Maya Mali, sobbed seeing their middle child draped in cloth head to toe, while Karan and Preeti, Pinky’s siblings, gave them courage.

A large number of Pinky’s relatives had arrived from Banaras, Uttar Pradesh, the Mali family’s native town, on Thursday, informed her aunt, Pushpa Mali. “She was a happy kid… she would visit our family every time she was in Banaras and always kept in touch,” she told mid-day.