She wanted to serve humanity: Father of Indian-origin student who died in Houston

NEW DELHI: Delhi-resident Shalini Singh had secured admission at the prestigious Texas A&M University in the US to pursue her dream of research in medical science but fate willed otherwise.
The 25-year-old student lost her battle with life late on Sunday night at a hospital in Houston, days after being rescued from the choppy waters of Lake Bryan in the storm-ravaged Texas where Hurricane Harvey has wreaked havoc, claiming over 50 lives.
"She wanted to do research on diseases. She aimed to serve the humanity. That was her motto and it remained so, until I last saw her before she left India," her father said here after the shocking news hit the family like a tsunami.
"She was passionate about her higher studies," he told PTI, and almost choked recalling the moment when she had learned of her selection to the famed American university.
Shalini had landed in the US only last month to pursue the two-year masters programme in public health after completing her degree in dental surgery from ITS Dental College in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida.
Her death comes days after that of another Indian student of the same university, Nikhil Bhatia, with whom she had gone swimming last Saturday to Lake Bryan.
Bhatia died in the hospital on August 30, while Singh continued to be in a critical condition, before succumbing.
She will be cremated in Bryan on Tuesday or Wednesday next week, according to the consulate sources.
Her younger brother and maternal uncle, who flew from New Delhi on August 30, were with her at the time of death.
The city of Houston is also the headquarters of NASA's famed human spaceflight operations, where human ambitions take wings. But for these two students their dreams were short-lived.
24-year-old Bhatia, who had enrolled for a PhD programme at the university, was cremated on Friday in Texas.
Bryan is a city in Brazos County of Texas and borders the city of College Station, which lies to its south. Together they are referred to as the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area. The Texas A&M University is located in College Station.
Globally renowned as one of the finest, the university opened its doors in 1876 as Texas's first public institution of higher learning. The university attracts a good number of students from India for higher studies.
Around 13 million people were battling catastrophic flooding and torrential rain in the storm-battered Texas, situated in the midwest part of the US.