‘Didn’t sleep for months, the scene kept playing in my head’: 15 years later, owner recalls how German Bakery blast changed her life

It was not a cylinder blast, as the family found out on their way to the restaurant. “When we were informed that it was a terror attack, we were like, ‘How do we go about this now?’” says Snehal.

The terror attack that changed Pune forever killed 17 people and injured 58. Fifteen years have passed and Snehal remembers that she and her cousin had to walk about 2 km from Le Meridien to German Bakery because the roads were shut. She can still vividly see the scene at what used to be one of the coolest places in the city. German Bakery was reduced to rubble, there were bloodstains and a kind of horrible stench.

“I didn’t sleep for two to three months after that because the scene kept playing in my head. Nothing prepares one for something like this – the noise of the ambulance, the chaos of people, being pulled to one side and being told, ‘You can’t go there. There is something there’. I was taken to the police station to give my statement. I had to go to the hospital to identify people,” recalls Snehal.

Her father, Dnyaneshwar Kharose had set up the restaurant with German national Woody Klaus in 1988 so that foreign nationals could find food and a vibe that would feel like home. Dnyaneshwar had no background in the hotel industry or any concept in mind for the restaurant but he was full of passion to get new things done.

Far from its present chic and fancy avatar, the original German Bakery was shack-like but filled with people reading, playing guitars, relaxing over games, food and music or just catching up. Snehal would run to the tables and the guests would pamper her, calling her Nanu’s daughter after her father. Dnyaneshwar passed away in 1999 and Smita, who was a homemaker, began to take care of the three children as well as the business. “She struggled after my dad passed away,” says Snehal.

A regular teenager, Snehal was an average student who wanted to study law and go abroad. She did not have any kind of aspirations in the hotel industry. But on the evening of the blast, she grew up, maturing with every hour as she took over the reins of the restaurant. “I look back at how I did it and I think everything just happened. When things fall on you, you somehow tend to manage it. That’s a miracle,” she adds.

Snehal, who is the eldest child in the family, soon became the face of German Bakery. She gave interviews to the media, choosing her words wisely as the site was part of a terror investigation. She dealt with the property being sealed by the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and “just kept going with the flow”. What helped was that her mother trusted her and said that she could do it. “I am here because of my mother,” she underlines.

It took three years for German Bakery to reopen. “I know the struggle that I had to go through to start it. We didn’t have the finances. The restaurant was the only source of income for the family and when it shut, we faced a challenge. There was my younger sister’s education and care for my brother, who is a special child,” Snehal says.

Today, German Bakery has a classy ambience where people can have meetings, a get-together or a date. There are also 30 cameras, a metal detector and security at the gate. “We have to take precautions. At the back of your mind, a fear lingers,” says Snehal. There are, however, more German Bakery outlets, in Hinjewadi, Lonavala and the Expressway, and another is in the pipeline. The two old trees that stood like an umbrella over the diners at the old bakery, however, still stand guard on a new generation.