The last time Mrs Sadhana V. Bendre saw her husband alive was over a video call during which he gave her a thumbs up. The 59-year-old photojournalist had been put on oxygen therapy at a government Covid-19 hospital in Mumbai and, with the mask on his face, that gesture was all he could manage to tell his wife he was doing well.

"I told him not to speak and 'you will recover'," said Mrs Bendre. That call took place on April 24. Her subsequent calls to him on that day went unanswered, her messages left unread.