Face of blasts says he just wants to go home

‘‘I am just glad to be reunited with my family. Having survived head injuries, glass splinters, and my son having survived the sto...

‘‘I am just glad to be reunited with my family. Having survived head injuries, glass splinters, and my son having survived the stomach operation, we feel grateful for the new lease of life. Six of us could have died,’’ says a relieved Rajiv Khanande.

Khanande’s face was one of the first pictures of terror — carrying his bleeding five-year-old son Golu — captured by a Gateway photographer.

Golu, Ashwin (4), Vijay, Rajiv Khanande, cousin Amba Das Chauhan (10) and Kishen Chauhan (52) have all survived. However, Kishen Chauhan, Vijay Khanande’s father-in-law, is still in shock and Golu and Ashwin are trying to cope with the pain, post-surgery.

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Clinging on to their miraculous survival, Vijay Khanande says: ‘‘I am only a carpenter from New Mumbai and my brother is a penniless mazdoor. We are just egging each other on to get better and leave this place. They have had it with Mumbai, they just want to go home.’’ His family had come down to Mumbai for a house-warming ceremony.

‘‘We will have to do something really special with our lives or else we cannot imagine why we survived this,’’ he says.

Police personnel seen to control the situation during a massive protest over the statehood demand and the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, in Leh on Wednesday. (ANI Video Grab)

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