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Monday, Dec 22, 2008
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A shortlived ‘Bombay dream’

Lyla Bavadam

On the fateful day, Sharma went to Colaba Market for dinner and did not return
“He was a good worker and got along with everyone”

Mumbai: Rajendra Sharma was around 28 years old when he was killed in the terror attack in Mumbai. Usman, his employer, recalls how Sharma came to Mumbai.

“The boy is from my village in Khajripura in Uttar Pradesh. Whenever I used to go home he would beg me to get him a job in my electrical repairs shop. He kept saying he wanted to see Bombay. Five years ago he realised his dream. I brought him here. He was a good worker and got along with everyone.”

Regular schedule

Sharma had a regular schedule on working days. He would finish work at the shop around 8 p.m. and head to the Colaba market for dinner. The schedule remained the same on November 26.

Like many low-income earners Sharma paid a fixed amount of Rs. 1,000 every month to a ‘lodge’ — a place that provided two meals a day at specific times. “We knew he went directly there because he said he was hungry and was going straight for his dinner.” That was the last time that Usman saw his employee. “Around 9 p.m. we heard this huge blast … people said it was a bomb but in about 20 minutes we got to know it was the grenade that had been thrown near Nariman House. Our immediate thoughts were of Sharma because his lodge is right in that gully. We rushed there but there was total chaos. People kept saying it was a bomb. They were saying that many people had died in the blast and that there had been firing. There was no way to get in the gully. More grenades were being thrown, shots were being fired and we were scared,” said Usman.

Futile search

When Sharma did not come for work the next day his colleagues thought the worst had happened. “We looked for three days in all hospitals but could not find him. We even thought that he could have got so frightened that he took a train and went back home to Uttar Pradesh. You know how it is … when there is fear in the mind we are willing to think of anything just so that we don’t have to accept the worst.”

Identity card

On November 29, the shop got a call from Nair Hospital. Sharma’s body had been identified from an identity card. “We went there. He was unrecognisable. The entire body was black. He must have taken the full brunt of the explosion.”

It was left to his employers to call his family and tell them of the tragedy. His family, which consists of one brother and two sisters, came to Mumbai to perform the last rites.

“I know this was his fate,” said Usman, “but it does not make it easier to accept — it was too brutal and too tragic.”

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