Dhaka café attack victim Tarishi Jain was full of dreams, vowed to fight poverty

Eighteen-year-old Tarishi Jain, a student of University of California, Berkeley, had come to Dhaka on vacation and to spend some time with her family. Tarishi, along with two of her friends had gone to the posh Holey Artisan Bakery on Friday evening, with probably bagels and coffee on their mind. It was believed to be one of her favourite haunts in Dhaka, reported The Indian Express. Tarishi and 27 others became the victims of one of the deadly terror attacks in Bangladesh. Tarishi’s mortal remains arrived in India on Monday and the family will perform her last rites in Firozabad. The teenager’s father, who runs a garment business, has settled in Dhaka’s Baridhara area, which incidentally just a few minutes away from where the attack took place. Tarishi had attended American International School of Dhaka before moving to California. Her Facebook profile shows, like a typical teenager, she was in tune with pop culture and fond of watching shows like Big Bang Theory, Friends and liked to listen to Taylor Swift and Pitbull. But for her, life was not all about about hanging out with friends and having a good time, a well-traveled and enterprising teenager, Tarishi was enthusiastic about the launch of EthiCAL - a clothing line to help underprivileged entrepreneurs start their businesses. Her Facebook post on 5 April, said, “We are so excited to launch our new clothing line! Pleeease support us in our mission to help rising entrepreneurs and fight poverty all around the world.”

Her Facebook profile also show that she was very close to her family. She has dedicated posts to her mother and brother and for her, the International Students Association (ISAB) at Berkeley was a home away from home. She wrote on Facebook in January, “If I didn’t have ISAB…for real though, do I even have other friends?? Totally joking, come check out my amazingly diverse and awesome fam at our first general meeting at 102 Moffit!”

Tarishi was on a summer internship from the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Centre for Bangladesh Studies at Berkeley, according to Rediff.com. Professor Lawrence Cohen, director, Institute for South Asia Studies, was quoted as saying, " Tarishi was a dedicated student, passionate according to all I have spoken with about her work as a social entrepreneur." Devastated by the loss of Tarishi, her friends and faculty members are still under shock. Tarishi had made a distress call at 1.30 am from the washroom of the Holey Artisan Bakery, which was the last time her family spoke to her. “She told us that gunmen were around and that she had locked herself in one of the toilets of the restaurant,” her uncle Rakesh Mohan Jain told IANS. They had tried calling her, but the calls remained unanswered. It was only answered at 6.30 am, but no one spoke from the other end, he added. Her family in Firozabad was looking forward to Tarishi’s visit to India on Sunday, reported The Hindu. “This is the biggest tragedy of our lives, the much expected celebrations at this house have suddenly turned into extreme grief,” said Rakesh Jain told the daily. With inputs from agencies