It was yet another day in the life of Railway engineer Mohammad Javed Nasim Ahmed Shaikh. Everyday, he used to board the commuter train home from Victoria Terminus, where he was stationed. On July 11, 2006, he was one of the unfortunates who never made it back home.
Sharda, Javed's wife, who has been staying with her deceased husband's parents in a chawl in Bandra (East) since the incident, says: "My life has turned into a living hell. My husband was the bread winner of the family. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that he is no more.
"We got a paltry amount from the Railways. They also offered me a job. But my son told me not to take it up. It is not the case that I am uneducated. My husband never let me work either," an emotional Sharda says.
"We had to move out of our rented house after his death. My daughter was supposed to get married earlier this year. We had to reschedule the wedding. We got Rs 1 lakh as compensation from the state government, most of which was utilised in her marriage on November 20," Sharda says, while her aged father-in-law looks on with eyes dulled by despair.
Sharda's son Mohammad Zakir Shaikh, an engineer, has taken up the responsibility of looking after the family. His job with an Italian firm has brought some relief; they are now contemplating moving out of the chawl, which is too small to accommodate Sharda and her in-laws, and into a proper apartment.
The Shaikhs, barring Sharda, seem to have picked up pieces of their shattered life and moved on. Today, they only have one demand -- that those who committed the crime are tracked down, and hanged.
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Image: Shocked relatives of a train blast victim wait at a hospital
Text: Vipin Vijayan
Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images
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