Survivors can still feel the aftershocks

‘My wife had to work as a domestic help’

The blast at Katha Bazaar left Bhaskar Poojari, who was 42 years old then, with a badly injured leg and a pierced eardrum. Thirteen years later, he is still undergoing treatment.

“I received a meagre Rs5,000 as compensation. The cost of treatment for the shrapnel wound on my left leg and hearing loss in my right ear amounted to much more than that,” says Poojari, 55, who at the time was the only earning member of his family. “I was working as a medical representative, but could no longer continue.”

He remained confined to his house in Khar (east) for three years. “During this time, my wife was forced to work as a domestic help in the locality,” he says.

Things are better today, with his wife working as a tailor, and both his children - a girl and a boy - studying in class 12. Poojari now works as an accounting clerk at a hotel in Khar. But the cruel memories of 1993 refuse to fade away.

‘A nail pierced our mother in the head’

Sumit Pilankaar, a student of class 12, lost his mother in one of the blasts. He was five at the time. “My sister was two years old when we lost our mother (Mamta). The blast took place at the petrol pump adjoining the wall of the compound in which our chawl (near Sena Bhavan at Shivaji Park) is located,” he said.

“She was alone at home. My sister and I had gone to visit a newborn baby on the ground floor of our chawl while father had left for work. The blast was so powerful that the front door rammed into my mother’s face and a nail pierced her head. She died on the spot.”

“The police immediately cordoned off the chawl and blocked movement because of which it took us half-an-hour to reach mother. It was a horrific scene.”

The Pilankaars were later shifted to Parel village and got a compensation of Rs2 lakh.

‘Justice is too delayed’

Karim and Rajab Ramodiya, the youngest of six brothers, were killed in the blast at Century Bazaar, Worli. Both were in the family-owned cake shop a few meters away from the spot where the bomb exploded. Grief-stricken, Karim’s wife and his son packed their bags and left for Hyderabad. Rajab’s wife went to her parents’ in Baroda. “It was too shocking for us. We still have not gotten over it. Justice is too delayed, but the culprits should be given the most severe punishment,” said the eldest of the Ramodiya brothers.

The family sold off the shop and shifted to another house to erase the gory memories. “I saw their bodies lying in a pool of blood. I was the one who took them to hospital,” said the eldest brother’s wife. “Indoor at once”, is the standing instruction for the family every time a blast occurs in Mumbai. “But blasts have become so common now, that they fail to create the sort of panic they did in 1993. We have learnt to pick up the pieces and carry on with life,” said another brother.

'I don't think justice will be done'

Nishita Mahimkar, a security training instructor with Jet Airways, does not want to think about March 12, 1993. Nishita, then in FYJC, Kirti College, and four of her friends were on their way home after watching a film in Satyam Theatre, Worli, when the blast took place. Two of her friends died on the spot while the third died three days later. "We were waiting at the bus stop when it happened," Nishita said.

"I lost three close friends in the blasts. I just could not get over it," said Nishita. "Till two years ago, her right leg used to bleed profusely," said her mother Rekha who is furious with government, "We were made to run from pillar to post for the compensation. After all that, we did not get a single penny."

Nishita doesn't believe that the real culprits will be punished. "After so many years, I do not expect justice," she said.

'The shrapnel still causes me intense pain'

Booking clerk Dattatray Pawar was badly injured in the blast at the Plaza Theatre parking lot that claimed six lives. He still has a metal piece inside his abdomen, causing him frequent pain.

"I was on the advance booking window at that time," said Pawar, 64. "Two of my colleagues died on the spot. I suffer from intense pain as the doctors have said the shrapnel in my abdomen cannot be removed."

Pawar said he doesn't know if he can claim his compensation now. "I was too busy with my treatment and could not even think of claiming it," he said. He had to go on small errands since the theatre stopped functioning. "I my financially sound, but the memories of the blast are disturbing."