Family of missing religious pilgrim in Nepal, Jitendra Manubhai Patel, of Merrick, desperate for word

When Jitendra Manubhai Patel, 72, of Merrick, retired from his job at Fortunoff, he soon got bored. He missed talking with people, his son Sunny Patel said. So, he decided to become an Uber driver — just "for fun."

"That's the kind of person he is," Sunny Patel, 38, told Newsday in a phone interview on Thursday night. "Why not just go talk to people, right? Like, hear other people's stories and then just kind of make friends."

So when his father decided to make a religious pilgrimage to Nepal with mostly strangers in a tour group this year, it wasn’t a matter of if, but when.

Now Sunny Patel and other family members of the 90 Americans missing in Nepal after catastrophic floods are desperate for any information about their loved ones.

"It's really impossible to get closure unless we obviously hear from them," Patel said. "They could be literally anywhere."

Sunny Patel said his father’s tour group, part of travel company Nepal Trekking Planner, left Kennedy Airport on Aug. 22. The group had spent a little over one day in Kathmandu before attempting to cross the Tibetan border. Jitendra Manubhai Patel was part of a seven-person group tour, including family friends Tejal Vyomesh Patel and Amita Amin.

Aditi Patel, 42, of Old Westbury, told Newsday her mother, Tejal Vyomesh Patel, 64, of New Jersey, and her mother-in-law, Amita Amin, 67, of Roslyn Heights, were part of the pilgrimage. 

Jitendra Manubhai Patel had kept in touch with his family through WhatsApp. He had called Sunny Patel and his family Tuesday night. Sunny Patel said he believed his father had just gotten through or was near the border at that time.

"Everything was great," Patel recalled of his last conversation with his father. "That was the last time we spoke to him or had any connection with anyone in the group."

Patel said his father was nervous, yet excited to go on the trip. The group was set to visit Mount Kailash, which has an elevation of about 21,778 feet above sea level and is considered a sacred peak by Hindus, Buddhists and people of other faiths.

"We were concerned about being on the mountain. not in the valley in a car," Patel said. "This was supposed to be the easy part."

In an emailed statement Friday night, Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) said: "My heart breaks over the devastation and tragic loss of life we've seen in Nepal and Tibet. I'm encouraging any families who are affected by this event to reach out to my office for assistance. We will use every tool available to ensure Long Islanders and their families can safely return to the U.S." 

As of Friday morning, the Nepalese government said at least 1,924 people are missing — twice as many as previously thought, The Associated Press reported. China’s state media previously said 558 people were missing on the Chinese side. More than 3,700 have been rescued.

The death toll from Wednesday’s disaster has surpassed 570.

Sunny Patel, who grew up in Merrick but lives in Chicago, said he and his wife traveled to Long Island on Wednesday night to be with his mother in Merrick.

Rajan Gauli, former president of the Long Island Nepalese Society, said he and other Nepalese Long Islanders were also striving to find answers about their loved ones. They also are raising funds for search-and-rescue efforts.

"When we saw the bad news, our Nepalese brothers, our relatives, our friends ... really, really, our heart is broken," Gauli said. "After that, we didn't sleep well."

Patel described his father as a charismatic social butterfly who was often "the life of the party." After immigrating to the United States from India, Jitendra Manubhai Patel worked a multitude of jobs to provide for his family, including as a jewelry manager for Fortunoff and a part-time photographer.

Patel also said his father was a "very spiritual" man who "always believed that there was a reason for everything," or that God had a plan.

"The irony of him potentially going out on a spiritual retreat is not lost on me," Patel said.