‘I am lucky I survived’

At 6.55 pm, the windows of Jayendra Bhavan, a building on Dadar’s SK Bole Marg, were shattered and blown inwards as a bomb exploded atop a bus stop across the road.

At 6.55 pm, the windows of Jayendra Bhavan, a building on Dadar’s SK Bole Marg, were shattered and blown inwards as a bomb exploded atop a bus stop across the road.

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On the second floor, 26-year-old worker Bati was thrown four feet as his ears began bleeding. He is now at risk of lose his hearing. The blast that injured eight was heard across a radius of more than a kilometre, as buildings shook and streetlights shattered.

Saloni Kalwade, an 11-year-old practicing her classical Indian dance moves in Dadar (East), a kilometre away, remembers hearing the clap and thinking it was thunder. Later, class was dismissed as her worried dance teacher ushered the children to their waiting parents.

At the scene of the blast, eight injured were rushed to KEM Hospital. Those with less severe injuries found help at local hospitals. These included Blossom Rodrigues, 28, who was on her way home from work, walking past the bus stop with a friend, at the time of the blast.

“I heard a deafening noise and fell to the ground,” said Rodrigues, who suffered multiple wounds on her left arm, legs and above her left eye. “I stumbled to a nearby shoe shop and the shopkeeper offered me water. I called home and told my husband I needed to be taken to a hospital.”

Nikhil Chaudhari, 22, who recently completed his Bachelor’s degree in electronics, had made inquiries at a tutorial class and was headed to his nearby home.

“The thud hit my ears even with the helmet on,” he said. “I saw a crying, bleeding crowd running helter-skelter.” Chaudhari ran to a nearby showroom. His pants were covered in his blood. “I’m lucky I survived,” he said.