MUMBAI: Fifty-year-old Shiv Kumar Sharma has just returned from the KEM Hospital here where he goes alternate day to get dressed for the head injuries sustained in the July 11 serial blasts. Mr. Sharma, a businessman, was returning from his welding and buffing unit on Charni Road in South Mumbai when the blast occurred in the first class compartment of a train at Mahim.

"Abhi bhi dehshat hai (I still feel the terror)," says Mr. Sharma whose right eardrum was shattered in the blast. He can barely hear through the left ear. His wife Prabha says he writes down instructions for his factory workers. Since July 11, he has not travelled by train; instead, takes a taxi to go to the factory accompanied by his wife. "He cannot travel alone and feels dizzy after taking a few steps," she says.

The businessman recalls that he was standing in the compartment when the bomb went off. "We felt a strong electric current after the explosion as the overhead wires also broke. It was terrible, I thought I was dead," he says. There were two bodies on him. When he realised he was alive he forgot that he was suffering from a severe back problem and jumped from the train. His family is worried about his future medical bills. It will be another two months before he can pay attention to his business.

Like Mr. Sharma, life is far from normal for more than 500 injured in the serial blasts.

On the eighth floor of Hinduja Hospital, 21-year-old Chirag Chauhan is fighting a battle. He has completed 11 months of his articleship to become a chartered accountant. But now he is paralysed chest down after an injury to his spinal cord he suffered from the blasts. His left ear is impaired.

He was on his way home from the Elphinstone Road station when the blast took place at Khar Road. Chirag is the only son; he has three sisters and lives with his mother. He will need extensive physiotherapy to recover from his injury. Despite his condition, Chirag is cheerful. "I don't remember a loud explosion, just a popping sound in my head. I thought my brain was damaged. Then I saw the blood on people's faces and the torn clothes. I found I could not stand up. People took me on a seat from the compartment and put me in a truck," he says.

Twenty-year-old Aparna Salvi, a second year homoeopathy student, has no memory of the explosion at Jogeshwari. She left early that day to go home to Borivali. "I don't remember the explosion, my eyes were tightly shut. I was with two of my friends in the general first class coach that day. I remember people picking me up and asking for my phone number," says Aparna. Her little finger has been amputated and her index finger is also injured. She suffered injuries to the cheekbone and has stitches on the left side of the face, apart from burn marks on the left forearm. She also cannot hear very well through the left ear.

She has not travelled by train after that day. Her parents had to pay Rs. 20,000 to settle the hospital bill and had to run around to ensure that the Railways will compensate them.

Railway assurance

Although many of the injured express concern about compensation, Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Pranai Prabhakar says the Railway will bear all medical expenses raised by hospitals.

There are about 26 hospitals in the city and suburbs that have treated the victims. Of the Rs. 1 crore bill amont, about Rs. 60 lakhs has already been paid.

The Western Railway has also paid compensation to the families of 184 of the 187 killed. Two claims are being processed and one person remains unidentified. Altogether Rs. 11 crore has been disbursed in ex gratia payments to the injured as well as to the families of deceased, says Mr. Prabhakar.

The Railway is paying the hospitals directly and it is open to paying for future surgeries for injuries sustained in the blasts, he says.

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