Weekend that was their last

Manoj had come from Patna for a holiday with his cousin Virendra and aunt Sangeeta Singh. He was staying with his aunt in Mayur Vihar and they had stopped at Ghaffar Market to shop for necessities.

Manoj Kr Singh, 16
Manoj had come from Patna for a holiday with his cousin Virendra and aunt Sangeeta Singh. He was staying with his aunt in Mayur Vihar and they had stopped at Ghaffar Market to shop for necessities. They had almost reached their car in the parking lot, when all three were injured in the blast.
8220;There were mangled bodies right in front of our car. Only after they were removed could we manage to pull out our car and head for a hospital. If only we had left a little earlier, this would not have happened,8221; Sangeeta said, as she waited outside the ICU around 2.30 am, while her son completed formalities for the handing over of the body to the police for autopsy.
Manoj had succumbed to internal injuries around 1.30 am. 8220;His parents are on their way,8221; she said. Sangeeta too, sustained injuries on her hand.

Subrata Mondal, 21
Subrata Mondal 21 had gone to buy a mobile phone from Ghaffar Market with a friend.
Sanjay, his brother, is in a state of shock. 8220;When I was first called to the Lady Hardinge Hospital morgue to identify my brother, I did see a body similar to Subrata8217;s but couldn8217;t identify it. I did not want to believe that my little brother, whom I spoke to just an hour ago over the phone, was dead,8221; Sanjay says.
Subrata8217;s face was could not be identified. Ball bearings packed into the bomb had left a hole in his forehead. When Sanjay demanded to see the body, he saw injuries all over it. While Subrata was brought dead to Lady Hardinge, his friend Sheebu Bag was taken to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in a critical state.
After a postmortem, Subrata8217;s body was taken to his brother8217;s house in Usmanpur, where the rest of his family, including his mother, sister and brother-in-law, was waiting. He was cremated at the Nigambodh Ghat crematorium at 5:30 pm.
The family is originally from Domjur in Howrah and Subrata had come to Delhi to work as a craftsman at a jewellery factory. He lived in a small room with twenty others from West Bengal in the Chail Puri Gali in Chandni Chowk8217;s Kinari Bazaar.

Rajni Gupta, 42
Rajni8217;s 16-year-old son had been unusually obstinate last afternoon as he demanded that she drop her plan to visit her parents8217; place in Karol Bagh. But duty-bound Rajni, a 42-year-old homemaker and mother of two, had to see her paralysed mother and arrange for a maid, to keep her company round-the-clock.
She arrived at 2.30 pm, ensured her parents had lunch, shared pleasantries with neighbours, discussed which agency she could hire a maid from and rushed to the nearby Ghaffar Market to buy cushion covers for home.
Ritu Monga, her neighbour, who saw 8216;Pinky8217; Rajni8217;s nickname taking her last steps away from home, recounted how 8220;Pinky wanted to settle the issue of hiring a maid to look after her mother. We had a chat and she said she had to rush back home after some shopping, so she left.8221;
8220;Few minutes later we could feel the impact of an explosion and I knew in an instant our daughter was caught in it.8221;
Rajni was declared dead on arrival at Ganga Ram Hospital as she had succumbed to head injuries right at the spot. Being in close proximity to the bomb, Rajni was killed in the impact.

Babita Negi, 22
8220;Babita is gone. She is not coming back,8221; wailed the grandmother of Babita Negi, 22, who died in the bomb blast at Karol Bagh on Saturday. Sitting at the doorway of Babita8217;s house at Jawahar Market, she wept over the death of her granddaughter as relatives milled around. Inside, the mother weeps and refuses to come out.
Babita would have been alive had she listened to her mother and visited her grandmother in Tilak Nagar instead of going shopping, say relatives.
8220;At the last moment, Babita8217;s friend called her up and asked her to accompany her for shopping to Ghaffar Market. Babita agreed,8221; says Ramesh Beniwal, a close relative. While Babita died, her friend survived. 8220;Splinters pierced her friend8217;s shoulder. As Babita was standing in front, she died in the impact of the blast,8221; he said.
Babita was the eldest child of the household with a younger brother and sister. Poonam, the younger sister, is 19 while the brother is 15. 8220;Her father, Ram Chandra Singh, in government service, has not returned home,8221; says Ramesh before breaking down.