Gangtok, Feb. 23 -- There is a particular cruelty to midnight tragedies - they strike when the world is asleep, and by morning, a family wakes up changed forever. That is precisely what unfolded on the darkened stretch of Sevoke Road near Panitanki Outpost in the early hours of Thursday, February 19, when a speeding car tore through the night and in a single violent moment, ended one life and shattered many others.

Shankar Chhetri., a gig delivery worker associated with Blinkit, was returning home after a night shift - a man doing what millions of India's invisible workforce do every day: hustle quietly to keep a household afloat. He was walking along the roadside with a young woman when a recklessly driven vehicle ploughed into them wit...