Priyanshi, 19, sat in the garden outside the AIIMS Trauma Centre in Delhi on Monday, still in the same clothes she had been wearing the night before. Her eyes were swollen from crying. Three people stood around her, holding her closely.Beside her sat her mother, in a black-and-white suit and a black dupatta over her head, her eyes fixed on the lawn.Through Sunday night, Priyanshi looked for her brother Pawan Yadav, going from hospital to hospital — Safdarjung, then Ram Manohar Lohia, then the Army’s RR Hospital — before returning to AIIMS, where she spent the rest of the night on a bench in the waiting area.On Monday morning, the family was told that Pawan, 21, a student at Delhi University’s Motilal Nehru College, had succumbed to his injuries.He and four other DU students were among the seven killed when a five-storey building housing a private hostel collapsed in Satya Niketan on Sunday.Sitting next to Priyanshi, his friend Anjali said, “Yesterday, we were looking for him. The whole night, no information was given to us. This morning, Pawan’s father got a call and was told he is no more.”Also Read | 5 dead, several trapped after multi-storey hostel collapses in Delhi’s Satya NiketanThe family, she said, was now taking his body home to Uttar Pradesh for the last rites.Story continues below this adA few metres away, another family shared the same pain. Akshat Singh, 20, a BCom student at PGDAV College, had died of head injuries. (Special arrangement photo/ Image enhanced using AI)Akshat Singh, 20, a BCom student at PGDAV College, had died of head injuries.“He was brought in last evening. We informed his family in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, and told them he’d been hurt,” said Mohit, his friend and batchmate.“They arrived this morning, some by car, some by taxi.”Story continues below this adBy 2 pm, 15 of Akshat’s relatives had gathered outside the AIIMS mortuary — some sat on the footpath, others stood in small, quiet clusters.His sisters and aunts had brought apples and fruit for him to eat once he recovered. His uncle carried bags and jholas packed with clothes.“We had planned a long visit, to get our son treated and take him home in good health,” his uncle Sonu said. “I did not know we would be taking him back in a steel coffin.”Once the coffin was loaded into the ambulance, his sisters and aunts climbed in after it. His father sat right beside it, a brown jhola in his lap holding the hospital’s release papers, his eyes fixed on the refrigerated steel coffin and nothing else.Story continues below this adHis aunt sat to his left, his younger sister beside her, staring out of the window.Before the ambulance pulled away, Sonu placed packs of water bottles and biscuits inside — enough, he hoped, for the 15-hour journey back to Katni.In front of AIIMS Trauma Centre, a mother sobbed as a relative held her tight.Pushpa Jaj’s son, Arpit, 19, was killed in the collapse. He was a second-year B.Com Programme student at Atma Ram Santan Dharma College, a stone’s throw from the hostel.Story continues below this adPushpa said she regretted sending her son to Delhi. “I should not have let him come. Today, he would have been with me here.”Arpit would have turned 19 on October 11. “He was still a child. When he came home, he would stand beside me in the kitchen and talk for hours,” she recalled.Pushpa last saw her son on September 5. “I hugged him before he boarded a train from Dewas (in Madhya Pradesh). I had asked him to stay back for a day more, but his tickets were booked two months in advance,” she said. “I had packed him aloo parantha for the journey.”Pushpa said he reached his PG around 9 on Sunday and told her he was going to sleep. “Around noon, I video called him after I came back from the temple… he said he missed me… we spoke for a bit before he said he’d go have lunch,” she said.Story continues below this adAround 2 pm, Arpit’s friend called the family and said the five-floor PG had collapsed. Four from the family immediately drove to Bhopal, took a flight and reached Delhi at 7 pm.Pushpa said they identified Arpit around 10 am today. “There was no jewellery on his body, no rakhi… His face was bruised. I couldn’t look for even a second. I saw a mole on the left side of his chest. I have the same,” she said, pointing to the same spot on her own chest.Pushpa said he had wanted to build a career and provide a better life for his family. “The college did not have a hostel facility… so we shifted him to this PG,” she said.“… I still don’t know if that body was of my son. How can they expect us to identify him when he wasn’t wearing any jewellery?” she said.Story continues below this ad“Vo aata tha aur mujhe pappi de deta tha. Main kaise vishwas kar loon ki vo yahan nahi hai? (He would come home and give me a kiss. How can I believe that he is no longer here?) I know that he is not dead,” she wept.For Yuvraj Soni’s family, the grief of losing their son was compounded by his father taking ill.Yuvraj, from Durg in Chattisgarh, was a second-year student of Motilal Evening College.Also Read | ‘Ruinous, dangerous’ condition: 4 buildings near Delhi collapse site get noticesOn Monday, a day after his body was recovered from the debris, his family stood outside the AIIMS Trauma Centre, making calls and trying to work out how to take him back home. His father, who had reached Delhi that morning, had to be admitted to hospital after his blood pressure droppedStory continues below this ad“Taking an ambulance from here would take 15 hours. I don’t know how his father will be able to travel for that long. We’re thinking of sending him by flight and Yuvraj’s body by ambulance. We can’t leave him here like this,” his friend said.Friends remembered Yuvraj as a hardworking student who had begun working towards his dream of becoming a CA.A close friend and batchmate, who used to explore Delhi with him, said Yuvraj had cleared the CA Foundation exam in January. “After college, we would often go to Qutub Minar and then eat outside. I’ll miss him,” he said.