Students of UC Berkeley gathered Tuesday to remember one of their own with a vigil for Tarishi Jain, a victim of the Bangladesh terror attacks, who attended the university.
Tarishi Jain who came to California in 2014 was completing an internship with the school’s Center for Bangladesh Studies in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, according to a CBS SF Bay Area.
According to the UC Berkeley newsletter, a few hundred students, staff and faculty gathered on Sproul Plaza to mourn the death, and celebrate the life, of Tarishi Jain.
The vigil for Jain started at around 12:00pm, reports CBS SF Bay Area.
Jain was a Berkeley sophomore who planned to major in economics. She was an Indian citizen who was a member of the international students association at the university.
“No words are adequate to express our pain and our grief,” Chancellor Nicholas Dirks was quoted as saying by the UC Berkeley newsletter as he was addressing the crowd from the Sproul steps. “And yet, at this most difficult of times, we must also share an ongoing commitment to embrace and emulate all that Tarishi Jain exemplified and stood for.”
Jain’s family lived in Dhaka. She was able to speak to her father on her cell phone moments before she was killed.
It was a friend from that group who organized the Tuesday vigil.
“We wanted to put together a space where students could mourn and grieve collectively and reflect on who Tarishi was for them,” said William Morrow of the Associated Students of the University of California.
“Today our hearts are broken and we stand together in solidarity and support with Tarishi’s family and her friends. As we do so, we cannot help but ask ourselves how to make sense of what seems senseless,” Nicholas Dirks said, according to CBS SF Bay Area.
A candlelight vigil was held in Dhaka over the weekend before her body was flown to Gurgaon Monday. She was then cremated in New Delhi.
Those who knew Jain said she was a very smart, ambitious young woman with a huge heart.
“It’s terrible to end her life that short,” said her friend and fellow Cal student Guadalupe Corona. “To be somewhere where you thought you were going to learn and to end up in a tragedy.”
The vigil ended at 1:00pm Tuesday afternoon and was open to everyone in the UC Berkeley community.
To help students and faculty grieve, the school’s University Health Services department will be offering counseling services throughout the week, said Susan Bell, the school’s assistant director of outreach and consultation services.
Students can drop by the school’s Tang Center anytime between 10:00am and 4:00pm to talk to a counselor and no appointment will be needed. Additionally, the school will hold a support space Wednesday at the school’s Multicultural Community Center starting at 2:30pm for students and staff seeking a safe space to talk, Bell said.
Jain was among the 20 people killed in the terror attack at a Dhaka bakery on Friday.
Source: The Daily Star
