Author: Chitrangada Choudhury
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 16, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/iep/sunday/story/8633.html
Introduction: Terrible Tuesday's toll is overwhelmingly
male: only four of the 183 killed are women-either by design or coincidence,
Mumbai blasts have snatched away sons, husbands, and fathers
Vijay Jhawar's desperate search through Tuesday
night in hospital after hospital for his younger brother Sandeep ended gruesomely
at dawn at the Sion Hospital's OPD.
"He was number 8 on the hospital's notice
board of dead,'' said Jhawar, in tears outside the morgue. ''How can I break
this news to his wife Pooja and young son, Ansh. We have told them he is still
missing.''
Sandeep, a 33-year-old company secretary on
his way back home to Bhayander from work in Colaba, was among the 41 bodies
brought from the blasted compartments at Mahim and Matunga stations.
Each of the 41 is a man, as are the 40-odd
patients in the hospital being treated for injuries caused by the explosions.
Tuesday's Terror, either by design or because
male compartments made simpler targets, has overwhelmingly attacked men. At
last count, there were 183 dead among whom only four were women.
A senior city cop who has probed terror attacks
on Mumbai in the past argues: ''Men might not have been attacked by design
but simply because it was the easier thing to do. Targeting women compartments
would mean the modules having women operatives who will place at least 3 kg
RDX in a compartment and slip out.''
But while women and children aren't Tuesday's
overt targets, the blasts have left scores of wives widowed, children fatherless,
and in several cases the sole breadwinner gone.
Like Ajaz Khan (41), travel firm employee,
survived by a wife, an 11-year-old daughter, and a 10 month-old son; Tushit
Shah (44), a broker who's left behind his wife and 15-year-old daughter; businessman
Lalit Kachalia (42) survived by his wife and son; former hockey player Sanford
Desales (44), survived by his wife and daughter who is 10; tour operator Salaeeh
Shaikh (42), survived by wife and three children; chemical engineer Parag
Karambalekar (mid-40s), survived by a college-going daughter and wife; Anuj
Kilawala (47), an insurance agent, survived by his wife, a daughter and a
son; police constable Shashikant Bedekar (32), survived by a wife and two
young children; bank manager Vinod A T (45) survived by a wife and a school-going
son and daughter; Paresh Thakar (37), an insurance seller, survived by wife
and school-going daughter.
These men's deaths aren't just untimely but
also very brutal, ensuring that outside hospital morgues across the city's
suburbs, it was colleagues and male relatives of victims who got together
to shield as far as possible from wives the violence of the loss.
So Jhawar and a group of friends were faced
with the problem of timing the transfer of dismembered remains for its last
rites with Sandeep's parents arrival in Mumbai on a afternoon flight from
Jaipur.
''The head and a hand is missing so we can't
take his body to his wife. We identified him by a ring on his right hand,''
shuddered friends.
Said inspector A Deshpande who was at the
hospital's police chowky preparing pachnamas for the relatives to reclaim
their dead: ''A wife or blood relative is needed for the paperwork as per
our procedure. That is posing a problem since most of the dead are men.''
As specialists point out, the pain of the
bereaved is severe, and will play out in less tangible ways far from the spotlight,
in private.
Bombay Psychiatric Society President V Matcheswallah
says: ''While partners will have to deal with a gamut of emotions from shock
and disbelief to anger, children depending on their age will be affected differently
at this break of the family structure. Younger children risk developing depressive
and introverted personalities because of the absence of a male role model
at home.''
Matcheswallah is talking to peers to formulate
an aid programme that can counsel Tuesday's bereaved, in facing life without
a partner and parent.
Meanwhile, there are those who are being stoic.
Insurance agent Paresh Thakkar heading home to his wife and daughter on Tuesday
evening was killed on the spot by the 6.25 Jogeshwari station blast.
Says his boss V Rao: ''When I finally got
through to Paresh's family at night, his 10-year-old daughter Mansi answered
the phone, and calmly told me: 'Uncle, Papa is dead'." Rao says Thakar's
wife Mansi is preparing to fill in her husband's shoes, intending to learn
how to sell insurance.
She told Rao: ''My husband was passionate
about his work. I know I must carry it on.''
Among victims, four women
The death toll in the Tuesday blasts in Mumbai
is now 183. Among the victims were four women. Three of them were:
o Hemlata Yadav: A 19-year-old volunteer for
the Home Guard since just over a year, she was on duty at Platform No 3, Borivali
station, when a bomb blew up a train compartment at 6.24 pm killing her.
o Nandini Naik: A Santacruz resident and ICICI
bank employee, Naik, 28, was also killed by the blast at Borivali.
o Kumud Shah: A Borivali resident, she was
killed by the 6.25 blast at Jogeshwari station
chitrangada.choudhury@expressindia.com
