Trivandrum: The road from Pettah - Puthenpalam is straight, smooth and - had Parvathy Puthanar been less polluted and free flowing - beautiful as well. The comparative calmness in the air here makes it hard to believe that helpless cries of little children had echoed in the air of this very same place. A protective wall now runs through the edge of the wall, which does pose a reassuring sight to the passing motorists. At the spot where the van had overturned into the waters of Parvathy Puthanar, (another seemingly hard to believe fact, as the present Paravthy Puthanar looks more like a field of weeds) a memorial block is nearing completion. For some reason, it strikes you as a very lonely structure. This pretty much surmises the present picture, one year after the Karikkakom school-van tragedy.

Subhdra, a woman in her sixties, lives in the house closest to the spot.

“There has been no 'special' change here since the accident. The wall was built and the police now go by much more frequently. Other than that, the vehicles still pass through like before and everything else is the same.”

Little Irfan, the lone survivor of the accident, is still on his wheel chair, paralyzed due to the polluted waters of Parvathy Puthanar. The magisterial inquiry report into the matter had pointed out over speeding, speaking on the mobile phone while driving and rash and negligent driving by an inexperience driver as the causes that led to the 'accident'. The report made one thing clear, and that was that the accident never would have taken place if some respect had been given to the rules of the road by the 19 year old driver of the unregistered school van belonging to the unrecognised school. One month later, the District Collector ordered the closure of the 'Little Hearts Kindergarten’ and that was pretty much the last that any one heard of the matter.