“I put my hand on her forehead, she asked me if I'd had any dinner and then she gestured for me to go to sleep. I held her hand and kissed it. I told her to take rest and not to worry and she closed her eyes.”
Her father said: “I so desperately wanted her to survive, even though she would have to live with a memory of that attack and get through her trauma.
“We're so devastated that she's gone. There's a huge void in our lives. She was the centre of our universe. Our lives revolved around her.
“Her absence is so painful, a future without her is unimaginable.”
The father revealed that the man with her daughter was not her boyfriend – just a very brave friend who tried to save her.
He said: “There was no question of her marrying because we belong to different castes.
“She never expressed a desire to marry. She was concentrating on her studies and wanted a job first.”
The father disclosed how his daughter often mentioned how uch her friend tried to save her.
“She kept telling her mother he tried his best to help but they kept beating him with a rod.”
The father descried how his daughter wanted to become a doctor.
He said: “I told her I can't afford to pay for her to do such subjects but she was determined. She wanted to be a doctor and earn lots of money and go overseas a lot.”
Damini's father earns Rs 5,700 a month.
He said: “It's hard living in Delhi on my wages, very hard. But she always said she would change all of that. She wanted to change our lives once she got a job.”
Damini's brother said: “Life is going to be so difficult without her. Without her guidance I don't know what to do or how to go about life again.”
Her father said: “The people of India have given us strength to cope up with our loss. I feel she's not just my daughter but also India's daughter.
“I used to read about rape incidents in the newspapers but never digested it much. We're so thankful to the people who came out to protest against the barbarity.”
Her father now hopes mothers and fathers will teach their sons to respect women.
He said: “The police cannot handle this on their own. But parents need to keep an eye on their children too.”
Her father's face lit up when he spoke of her dreams. The family album he showed discloses how Damini always preferred wearing western clothes, and she always wore her long, dark shiny hair down and flowing - never tied up.
