Chicagoland student falls to death in St. Louis

Nirmam Vasanwala

ST. LOUIS: Chicagoland student Nirmam Vasanwala, 19, of Streamwood died after a fall from his 12th floor balcony Marchetti Towers East apartment building on Laclede Ave. St. Louis University, St. Louis.

This happened on Thursday September 10 and in the absence of any contrary evidence that could suggest foul play; the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department deemed it to be "an accident".

In a statement, the St. Louis Police said "the resident assistant (of the campus housing) received a complaint of a disturbance on the floor and located the victim who was determined to be the source of the disturbance. While the resident assistant was in one room, the victim walked to his own room. The resident assistant responded to the victim's room and located the victim's roommate who appeared to have been sleeping, but the victim was not located. A short time later the victim was discovered lying on the ground below his balcony."

The University officials did not formally come out with any theory  Kent Porterfield, SLU's vice president for student development, said that students who were with Nirmam on Wednesday night said he had been drinking off campus.

A statement from the St. Louis University said "Our entire University community mourns the loss of Nirmam, and we extend our deepest sympathies to his family as well as his many friends on the SLU campus.'

Members of the Indian community are shocked that the death of this bright medical student came close on the heels of the death of yet another bright engineering student from Andhra Pradesh, Ngesh Dicha, who was killed in a freak accident in Ohio a week ago.
Nirmam Vasanwala was cremated at Country Side Funeral Home in Bartlett on Friday September 11. The cremation was attended by a large number of people with two bus loads of students coming from St. Louis. Besides, there were his high school friends, members of Jain society, his family members and relatives

Nirmam hailed from a Chicago suburb and had his schooling at Hoffman Estate High School. He was a bright student and was an outgoing personality. He was on the tennis and math teams and was in the National Honor Society.

He wanted to be a doctor and was enrolled  in SLU' s medical scholars program in which high-achieving students can be granted early admission to the university's medical school.
Purvi Pardiwala, a SLU junior, was on an Indian dance team with Nirmam last year. She recalled how he performed in a competition in California even with a hurt ankle. "He still pulled through," she said. "After he performed, he rushed off stage and collapsed. But because of him, we won first place.

He was a caring, genuine, down-to-earth person," she added. Shailesh Shah, the president of the Jain Center of Greater St. Louis, led the group in reciting three times the mantra of Namokar Maha Mantra which is a universal prayer. Many students took of their shoes.

Nirmam Belonged to the Jain faith. After the vigil students gathered around a table and wrote notes that subsequently were delivered to the Nirmam family in Streamwood, a Chicago suburb.

Nirmam is survived by his father Sunil, mother Vishwa and elder brother Amam. They hail from Surat and have been doing well here.

ASHWIN PATEL