By Dan Ferguson - Surrey North Delta Leader
She would ask for pictures of Canada.
When Jasmine Bhurji e-mailed or spoke with her aunt and uncle in Surrey, she often ended by asking for photos of the area.
A hotel manager in India, the 21-year-old was thinking about visiting one day.
She had developed a love of travel following her police officer father, a deputy inspector-general, as his work took him to different locations throughout India.
She especially liked hiking. A recent picture shows her beaming in front of a mountain range, her big shaggy dog on a leash in front.
She was intrigued by her uncle’s description of B.C’s mountainous terrain and moderate climate. There was rain, to be sure, but not as hard and extreme as it could be in India.
Her uncle, Nirbhye Bhui, says Bhurji was a perennially upbeat, energetic person who would throw her arms wide and hug her auntie hard every time they got together.
“I don’t ever recall her morose or gloomy,” the Surrey resident says.
The hospitality industry was a natural fit for the “vivacious,” round-faced young woman.
She liked her job and she was doing well.
Two weeks ago, the hotel chain she was working for transferred her from their Delhi operation to Mumbai.
It was a promotion. Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) is India’s financial centre and a popular tourist destination for foreigners.
On Wednesday, Bhurji was at her job at the posh Trident-Oberoi hotel when about two dozen Islamic militants armed with automatic rifles and grenades invaded Mumbai’s financial and tourist district.
They fired indiscriminately inside a train station, hospitals, a popular tourist cafe and the city’s two most luxurious hotels – the 105-year-old Taj Hotel and the Trident-Oberoi, which were packed with visitors and business executives.
Bhurji was one of the first to die.
The news has hit her family hard.
Her Canadian aunt Satinder Bhui can’t believe her niece is dead. Uncle Nirbhye says the news is still sinking in.
His brother-in-law and sister-in-law have claimed the body of their murdered child, he says. She was one of two children, their only daughter.
Her funeral will be held Friday.
At Leader press time, the toll in what some are calling India’s 9/11 was 119 dead and 315 wounded.
The Reuters news agency reported that elite Indian commandos were fighting room to room battles with Islamist militants inside the two luxury hotels to save scores of people trapped or taken hostage.
As many as nine Canadians may be among the hostages.
At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national have been killed.
The Indian government blamed militant groups based in Pakistan for the attacks.
One of the militants phoned an Indian TV channel to complain about abuses in Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars.