Blast killed teen, mother unaware: How will I get her married?

Only, Nadibatt still does not know her younger daughter was declared dead on arrival at the Lady Hardinge Medical College on September 13.

Hospital sources, meanwhile, say improvement in Nadibatt’s condition has come as a miracle in itself. Just a week ago, doctors had informed that both she and Santosh were in coma and were not responding to treatment. “Krishna Nadibatt has now miraculously shown tremendous improvement. But she has lost her right eye forever,” says Dr S K Sharma, Casualty Medical Officer at RLM Hospital.

Her husband Rama Nadibatt, 48, is also recuperating in the same hospital with a broken arm. Hospital authorities broke the news of Pooja’s death to Rama sometime last week, and he is yet to come to terms with the fact. “My dearest daughter is gone; now I only wish Santosh survives,” he says, fighting in vain to hold back tears. “What will I do if anything happens to her?

“Doctors say she is still very serious — I just keep praying all the time for her to get well.”

Asked about the terrible Saturday evening, when the family had gone to gaffer market in Karol Bagh, Krishna Nadibatt says she remembers nothing much — only that she was eating with Santosh and Krishna. “That’s all I remember,” she says. “We do not have a house and slept on the pavement in Gaffar Market, where we set up our shop during the day. But now we will never go back to that market. We will go anywhere Rama takes us.

“We will probably make ourselves a jhopdi somewhere in Raghubir Nagar.”

Krishna’s stomach was also ripped open in the blast and the wound is still green. “It hurts,” she winces, and then gets back to that most important question of her life now: “I am in such bad shape; how will I get my Pooja married now?”