Mumbai techie awaits news of wife missing after Nepal border tragedy

Manmath Kulkarni, a 60-year-old IT entrepreneur from Mumbai's Goregaon East, is anxiously awaiting news of his wife Veena, who has been missing since Thursday morning. This happened after a group of trekkers, including several former Oracle colleagues, went missing near the Nepal-China border. The group, led by veteran mountaineer Dr Milind P Chitley, comprised 10-12 people, mostly husband-wife pairs.

Kulkarni's wife, Veena, left Mumbai on August 23 on an 11 am flight to Kathmandu, traveling with fellow former iFlex Solutions employees Venkat Subramanyam and L Shankar, along with their spouses. The group reached Kathmandu on August 25 and journeyed to Timure, where they checked into a hotel. Around 6 am, they were still at the hotel when Veena mentioned they were waiting for one member to deliver a forgotten passport before crossing the border.

Kulkarni heard this around 8 am and expected them to cross over in another half an hour or 45 minutes.

His attempts to reach Veena via phone at 9:45 am were unsuccessful. However, it wasn't until 3:30 pm, when his brother inquired about the news, that the family realized something was amiss. The family has not yet received concrete information, and Kulkarni, who did not join the 14-day trek due to work commitments, confirmed that the entire group remains unaccounted for.

The family has filed a report with the Indian Embassy in Nepal and is monitoring official websites for updates, but reliable information remains scarce. Kulkarni, currently in Mumbai, stated that traveling to Kathmandu himself would likely not be helpful given restricted access to the affected region. His daughter Nidhi, a 29-year-old law firm employee, is coping better than he is.