Former Mr India is model patient

Chandra Sanyal insists that Abhijit is `co-operative towards his own improvement’. She explains that he doesn’t want to talk much because talking distorts the stitches. Incidentally, for two days since the attack, Abhijit was finding it difficult to talk because the cuts on his face and mouth made it painful for him to speak. His father, Ranjeet Sanyal, says his voice box was affected slightly, and it was initially difficult for him toeat solid foods. “But we are amazed with his willingness and co-operation to get better,” the parents say in unision.

A close friend of the model, with whom he was dining at Indigo restaurant in Colaba on Saturday night before he drove home, says she visited the model atthe hospital on Monday and was struck by his confidence despite his painful wounds. “The only thing that seemed to be in place were his spirits,” shesays. Other friends vouch for the same.

Abhijit remarked jokingly to some of his friends who visited him at the hospital that with the way he was looking now, he could easily land a role in a Ramsay horror film. “But that’s how he is,” says another friend. “Hedoesn’t wallow in self-pity, and he doesn’t want others to pity him either.”

Yet another friend of his is concerned about Abhijit’s ability to adapt to life once he returns home from hospital. “I don’t know if he’s going to be able to forget those memories of that attack,” his friend says. “I’m not sure he’ll be comfortable going back to the same building where he was attacked,” she adds. 23-year-old Abhijit who has been living alone inMumbai since he graduated rents a flat at Casmil Apartments in Seven Bungalows, Andheri. His family stays in Nagpur.