Seconds after a bomb exploded outside the Delhi High Court on September 7,Madan Mohan Sharma found himself on the ground with intense pain in the legs. When police help reached him,Sharma told them the phone number he could recall of a friend. His wife,Rekha was at a private clinic with their 14-year-old son. Soon,the call would come,and life would change forever for the already struggling middle-class family. It was not just Sharma. The course of many lives changed at 10.14 am that day the explosion left 15 dead and more than 70 injured. For the rest of the city,fear had returned. Police warnings often heard over the public address systems at markets took a different meaning. Four months on,bed number 22 at RML Hospitals orthopaedic trauma centre is still occupied by Sharma. He is still awaiting recovery as are his neighbours on beds 17 and 23 Mukesh Arora and Radheshyam Goel. The stories of struggle are aplenty. In Kamala Nagar,at his second-floor home,Vipin Kumar Gautam waits for the artificial limbs promised to him by the government. Nine-month-old Geetesh Bakshi in Ghaziabad will never know his father. Picking up the pieces The Rs 10 lakh offered as compensation to the victims of the explosion pales compared to the task of rebuilding their lives. What they need,they say,is rehabilitation that takes into account the needs of individual families and the damage they suffered. With three children (Namita is 18,Anmol 16 and Bhavesh 14) still in school,and their eldest in need of assistance due to a growth deficiency,Madan Mohan Sharma is anxious about the future. I read that when one is disabled,daily costs double. How long will Rs 10 lakh last for my family? It will take at least another year before I am back on my feet, Sharma says. For Rajni Bakshi,too,the future of her child is all that matters now. Unable to afford the rent of the Nawada apartment,where she lived with her husband Mridul (who was killed in the blast),Rajni and her son have moved to Ghaziabad,where her family lives. With her father retired,and a young brother still in college,Rajni is in dire need of financial independence. She was promised a job after her husbands death,but is yet to hear from the government. I request the government to please give me a job. I need it for my son, she says. Shattered dreams Ratan Lal Shroff,a textile trader,passed away on September 18,leaving behind his wife Poonam and four children. With her three daughters married and her youngest,Deepak,away in college,Poonam is slowly adjusting to life without her husband. Mother is slowly getting better. She spends her time talking to us on the phone,watches TV. I call her at least five to six times a day since I returned to college after Dussehra, says Deepak. Shroff wanted his son to complete his MBA,but Deepak is not sure if he can do that now. With his father gone,he feels he needs to start earning soon,specially since the Chief Minister offered him a job and asked him to approach her once he finished his studies. My father wanted me to get an MBA. He used to say that I neednt worry as long as he is alive. Things have changed,and I might have to start earning after I finish my course next year. But I wrote the CAT in October, he says.
