National

Terror victims try to get on with life

Mumbai: While one end of Mumbai was in the grip of terror attacks, Shyamsunder Chowdhury was going about his routine.

Mr. Chowdhury, who works in the Parle biscuit factory at Vile Parle in suburban Mumbai, left home at 10.40 p.m. on November 26 for night duty. He may have walked hardly seven minutes, when a deafening explosion jolted him. “I almost blacked out. All I could see was an overturned taxi with its tyre on top,” he says.

Mr. Chowdhury did not realise what had happened to him. “ I had a friend with me. When he lifted my hand, it started to bleed. That’s when the pain started. We hailed an auto and went to our family doctor. He advised us to go to a hospital. By then, I had understood that it was an explosion.”

The Chowdhurys live in Sambhaji Nagar, a congested colony of lower-income households in Vile Parle. The blast site is roughly 50 metres from the entrance to the colony. Here, the sound of the blast sent shivers through its sinuous pathways. Pandemonium broke loose. Mr. Chowdhury’s family too heard the explosion. “In some houses, utensils fell off the racks,” says his mother.

Curiosity drove Sunita Singh, a resident of Sambhaji Nagar, to join the crowd of bystanders. She still winces at the sight that met her eyes.

“The explosion was so loud that I thought the loft had come crashing down. There was such a crowd. I don’t know from where so many people had come. I too joined the crowd. Chunks of flesh and bones were strewn all over. I saw a leg hanging on a tree,” she recalled.

In this din, the news of Mr. Chowdhury’s injury threw the family out of kilter. His wife, Baby, says: “I was numb. I just wanted to go to my husband. Reaching the hospital was an ordeal. None of the autos was ready to come. Everyone wanted to watch the ‘show.’ When I got to the hospital and saw him and the wound, I cried uncontrollably. The police showed me his blood-soaked clothes. The bleeding would not stop. The next day he was operated upon.”

Mr. Chowdhury is now recuperating at home. His right arm is in splint and his head shaved because of the shrapnel wounds, now healed. It will perhaps be eight weeks before he begins work.

The family of eight is solely dependent on his earnings. With mounting medical bills, Ms. Baby feels the compensation of Rs.50,000 is not sufficient. “The government should assess the injury and give accordingly,” she feels.

The blast injured one more resident of the colony. On his way back from work, Balakrishna Ramachandra Bare, 42, was about 150 feet away from the fateful taxi when it exploded. He blacked out and fell, injuring his back. His face was hit by shrapnel.

His brother and wife took him to a hospital where he was treated for a week.

For Mr. Bare, a labourer with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, life has veered back on track. He returned to work on December 4 and resumed his routine of taking his children to school.

He has preserved two small glass pieces — one entered a bag of oranges he was carrying and one was found inside an orange itself!

For both, Mr. Chowdhury and Mr. Bare, November 26 was a nightmare whose end they were lucky to see.

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