JHALAWAR: Just days ago, the cheerful laughter of two siblings echoed through the courtyard of a modest house in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar. Today, a deafening silence prevails as the children were among the seven who died in the school building collapse on Friday.

Weeping inconsolably, the mother of the duo — a boy and a girl — wished God had taken her instead and spared her children.

“I’ve lost everything… I had only two children, a boy and a girl, and both are gone. My home is empty… There’s no one left to play in the courtyard. I wish God had taken me instead and spared my children,” she said.

Among the many stories of sorrow, perhaps hers stands out as especially heart-rending, even as the tragedy has plunged several families into mourning.

On Saturday morning, wails of grieving mothers pierced the air outside the mortuary of the SRG Hospital here as the bodies of the seven children were handed over to their families.

Some of them clung tightly to the wrapped bodies of their children, refusing to let go, while others sat in stunned silence, struggling to come to terms with the sudden and shattering loss.