The day their lives changed

Babu Manzoor Shiekh,32,will never forget February 13. This day last year,he thought the blast was a cylinder explosion and ducked for cover. Minutes later, he saw shards of broken glass and people smeared in blood.

“When I understood that it was a bomb blast,I ran and stopped at the entrance of The O Hotel. I saw men smeared with blood and as people started streaming towards the Bakery,I stepped in and shifted the injured to the hospital,” he recalled. Shiekh had to wait for weeks before he could resume driving his auto from the stand next to the bakery. “Police had blocked the road and they didn’t allow us to operate from here for days together,” he recalls. On the eve of the blast,Shiekh and other auto-drivers gave television bytes,explained the incident to foreigners and lit candles to pay homage to those who died. For Shiekh and many other residents of Koreagaon Park,the Bakery blast has changed the way Pune has moved on. There are residents from other parts of the city like Vishal Joshi,a Kothrud resident,who visited the Bakery as it is being readied for opening. And there are curious foreigners stopping by to inquire and even a German businsssman Marco Gud,taking the video shots of carpenters and other workers on job at the Bakery site. “It is important for me as the Bakery has a German name,” Marco said.

Some of the nearby shopkeepers and those visiting the Bakery could recall they were lucky to escape unhurt. Nitin Yadav,a salesman,at the shop adjacent to the Bakery said,“I had moved out ,but when I heard the blast and returned to the shop,I saw the glass door broken into pieces and the owner of the shop was lying down.” Pallani Velmurgan,a regular to the Osho international asharam,said he was attending the evening meditation session at the Ashram which saved him. “Otherwise I used to come to the Bakery in the day,” he said.

But Krishna Thapa,cashier at the Bakery,was not so lucky. He not only lost the job and has been sitting idle at home,but also suffered burns and remained hospitalised for weeks. “I was bed-ridden at the hospital for nearly 15 days and remained at home for months together. It took me near 3-months to recover,” he said. Samir Shiekh,another auto-driver said,” My auto got damaged. But I was not paid a single penny.”