Family loses its right arm, again

If there is something more horrifying than being confined to his hospital bed, it’s the thought of being discharged. ‘‘What will I do? How will I support my family with this?’’ asks a shocked Shailendra Gupta, showing the bandaged stump he has for a right arm. It’s perhaps the worst thing that could happen to a taxi driver who is the sole earning member of a family of seven.

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Gupta’s losing his arm in the Zaveri Bazaar bomb blast is too much of a deja vu for the family, who live in Gorakhpur. His father Dayaram Gupta, also formerly a driver, lost his right arm after an accident 15 years ago. The family got some insurance money that saw them through a few years, but Dayaram is no longer an earning member. The family hopes to see through the period of Gupta’s recuperation with the Rs 15,000-compensation package from the government.

‘‘I have worked in Mumbai all my life as a driver. I never got educated, I can’t read or write properly. Who will want an unlettered cripple to work for him? My parents have come from Uttar Pradesh, but what is the point? Every time I think of the future, I get a piercing headache that won’t go away,’’ says Gupta, who used to regularily send Rs 3,000 a month to his family. ‘‘All I dream about is my right hand over the steering wheel, my elbow jutting out of the window, waiting for a new customer at the taxi stand near Mumbadevi.’’