Saturday, July 12, 2008

7/11 Mumbai Blasts -- I was in one of the trains

I joined the company on 25th may 2006 and after about month training we came to Mumbai on 26th June 2006.

They were my early days in Mumbai.
For my first project I used to travel everyday to lower parel in local train.
The first day I got in local I was quite excited cuz I had always heard about it but never experienced the crowd, the rush, the sweat and the joy :-)

It was 11th of July 2006 Tuesday; I went to office in local, as a part of my daily office routine.
I made a friend named Kush in the project. He was senior to me but we used to smoke together in breaks and then you must know, 2 smokers become friends too early :-)

It was around 5.30 pm when Kush asked me if I wanted to leave with him. I agreed. Pre monsoon had begun in Mumbai so everybody preferred to leave early.

If I would have been alone…my routine was to walk to lower parel station...alone...with a sutta in hand and then catch a borivali local.
But today I was with Kush and he insisted me to walk till elphinstone road.
His daily routine was to have a glass of juice there and then get a train to borivali.
I accompanied him.
We reached station by 6 I guess and then we got in the local.
As usual we never got the seat and we were so used to stand in local.

Few stations passed by dadar, matunga, mahim, bandra and then khar road.

We both were just chatting about something and then it happened.
There was a blast, a big one; it was like a sutli bomb (noisiest Diwali firecracker in India) just exploded near our ears.
The train stopped. Within seconds we heard people shouting screaming, hell lot of panic.
We 1st thought that some transformer must have exploded but then there was smoke too.
Everybody started shouting Bomb!! Bomb!!
People started jumping from the train and ran away from the compartments.
We too jumped from the train and then had a look at the train from outside…it blew my mind as good as the train bogie was blown up by the fuckin Bomb.

The 1st class men bogie just ahead of ours 1st class men bogie was blown up…was torn apart like a cardboard toy train bogie…it was hard to believe that the train is made up of iron…or may be I never knew the power of a bomb.
(For blasted bogie pics, click the link for pictures at the end of the blog.)

It was such a panicking situation…people started running for safety and many others even stayed calm and ran to help the people in the blown up bogie.

I was standing with Kush and looked at the fucked up bogie and that was my 1st and last look towards it…

there was blood…there were bodies…and there were iron pieces both equally blown up…I could not believe what I was looking at…people were shouting…people from nearby apartments were throwing water…may be medicines…and I guess few bed sheets too…to help the people helping others…Some were helping the wounded victims to get a seat on track and cover their wounds…I saw a man with the blood covered shirt…some nice guy was helping him…
(For pics, click the link for pictures at the end of the blog.)

People have always cherished the helpfulness of the people of Mumbai and that day I saw it with my own eyes.

I walked along with Kush to the western express highway and there we could see how the city has been affected.
It was a heavy traffic jam; people were getting into all possible transportation available to reach their homes.

Just after the blast the entire mobile connectivity went down in the entire city…there was either heavy congestion…or as some one even said…the service providers do it purposefully so that there should not be any rumors…
To our luck we both were able to call our beloved ones and inform them that we are safe…

After we reached highway, to our luck after sometime we got the lift till kandivali.
Two elder guys in a car gave us the lift, probably they noticed out company id cards (exposing them was Kush’s idea).

From kandivali we both got in a bus and reached borivali…we then separated and rode to our respective homes…I took the rick till my place.

I don’t exactly remember when, but later I came to know that there have been in all 7 blasts in the 7 different local trains in the city…all were from Churchgate to Borivali or Virar…in the most peak hours…trains are highly crowded…and that’s what the motherfuckers’ aimed for…a big toll…and they got it…209 lives ended in the attacks and almost 700 got injured.

The blast in our train was the first of the seven blasts.

The 7 blasts took place in exact 11 minutes from 18.24 pm to 18.35 pm.
The date was 7/11 too.

When the train came to Elphinstone road station, I almost ran to get into the 1st class bogie which was ahead in the train…then Kush just held my hand and stopped me saying I don’t need to run as one more 1st class bogie will halt at the place where we were standing…there are the poles marked with colored strips as the mark…which I was not aware of…and then we got in the bogie which arrived infront of us…just few minutes later…the 1st class bogie infront of us was blown up…I would have been in it…if Kush wouldn’t have stopped me…

Later that night…I got a message from Kush “the distance between our life and death was between Elphinstone road and lower parel”.
He was true…if I would have got into train from lower parel…I would have got in the 1st class bogie ahead in the train…probably it would have been the last day of my life…or probably I would have been handicapped and life would have been worse than death…I am thankful to Kush :-)

In a few days the city returned to normal…as they as…Mumbai never halts!

The very next day I left for my hometown Nagpur and then I had to tell my story to all my friends as everybody was so curious to hear it :-)

Yesterday, exact 2 years passed by after the incident.

Life hasn’t changed much…same crowd in locals…same sweat…same rush…same joy.

*** This blog is a tribute to the victims of the attacks and is dedicated to all my well wishers and especially to Kush.

To know more in details about the attacks Please click here

The pictures related to the blasts are quite disturbing,
To see the pictures Please click here

4 comments:

Unknown said...

We need to learn from this dude. Indians have always been helpful to each other, it's our government which forget all this and don't do anything costing our lives.

Manish Mattawar said...

quite a political thought bro...
:-)

Elena said...

I finally read it... (i mean the thingy i was trying to read last night)... I'm totally speechless...
So sad... :((( Thank God that Kush's been there! (i know you're an atheist but still...)
It's like living a second life, Manish!

Manish Mattawar said...

Thnx a lot Ele...yeah it was really sad. And yeah Kush has been the second life giver.