The New Year spirit got to Rachna. While Mumbai would join the rest of the world welcoming 2007, she realised it would be difficult for her to remain in the same Andheri apartment — she would miss her husband, Lalit more than ever before. So, she and her seven-month-old son packed their bags to spend the last few days of December ’06 in Jodhpur with her mother. At least Jodhpur is far removed from Mumbai, the city of their dreams, and also the city in which she lost her husband to the 7/11 train blasts. Their neighbour, Meera Goradia, says she went into a shell after what happened. But they all miss the “quiet Kakanis”: from security guard Uttam Chandra to those working at Harish Chandra Chana Bhandar, the nearest grocery shop. “The seven years I have been working here, I have always been greeted with a smile from Lalit — as if he is telling me everything is fine. That’s all,” recalls Chandra, the guard of Shivam Apartments. “He was reserved. Only on Sundays, he would be out on the lawns of our complex. And I would get a handshake.” For Vishal Gupta, who takes of care of customers at the Chana Bhandar, Sundays were when Lalit would get his regular group of friends to the shop to have chaat or buy stuff. “He was shy. Since the last 10 years, he has been coming here with the same bunch of friends. He had a small world, and not everyone was invited to this world,” he says, recalling the number of times he would pat him on the back and ask for sevpuri for his friends or aloo chips for his wife. Goradia’s son, Sanjay, was one who was part of Lalit’s inner circle. “But, he would rarely come to our house even though he was close to Sanjay. He would merely wink at Sanjay, and he would go out to meet him. Rachna is the only one who knew about his likes and dislikes. But we all knew about his love for cricket.” Again, it was only on Sundays the neighbourhood would get to see him. Playing cricket till evening. “And if we were lucky we’d have a word or two,” recalls Goradia. Lalit, a diamond merchant, was returning home from his Opera House office on July 11, when he died in the blast on a train at Jogeshwari station. Today, neighbours and friends remember him fondly. For his shy nature, his lovely smile, his naughty wink and his love for cricket. “Not many people are calm and reserved yet loving,” says Goradia. “Though, he never said it, we knew we could count on him if we needed help.”
