Twenty-three-year-old Soumen Bag was known as a bookworm to his family and friends. The day the bridge in south Kolkata collapsed, the young medical representative had made a trip with his friend to College Street, the city's popular bookseller's hub.
According to Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, Bag was pillion riding a friend's scooter on his way back home in Behala. As the vehicle made it's way to the centre of the bridge, it collapsed, taking Bag and his friend down with it.
Bengali tabloid Ei Samay reported that Bag was found wearing a helmet, but the fall was so severe that the helmet couldn't save him. He was dragged out from the rubble along side other people inured and rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Initial reports suggested he died from severe head trauma.
Bag's mother, ABP reported, was in shock and kept fainting at the hospital. She kept crying, 'Why did you have to go to buy books just today?"
Bag, an avid reader, would often make trips to College Street to pick up old books and classics. His favourite authors, reported ABP, were Rabindranath Tagore and Jibanananda Das.
Bag's body couldn't be immediately identified and then a call was made to his family from the mobile phone found in his pocket.