“I was waiting at CST that night to collect my money for the tea I had just delivered. When I heard the gunshots, I thought they were fireworks but then there were 2 or 3 explosions and I knew. I turned around and saw a long line of people waiting at the ticket counter, so I ran towards them shouting ‘bhago, bomb hein’— people left everything behind and ran towards the road. When I entered the ticket office, the seniors there abused me for chasing them away, saying it was ‘just a short circuit’, but then another bomb exploded right outside where we were. Through the window I saw Kasab, and thought it was a commando with 2 AK47 guns in his hand. I frantically called out to him for help, but when he saw me he hurled such abuses that I can’t even repeat them…and then fired rounds of bullets inside the ticketing counter. The Railway Master was hit, I was injured because of the glass pieces and there were 7-8 other men injured.
After a few minutes, the firing was coming from some distance, so I got up and crawled outside to see countless bodies – some dead, some still having life in them. I called my wife at that point and told her that I might die because there could still be bombs at the station. She asked me to leave and go home, but I told her that I had to help my people. I’ve checked almost every body at CST for a sign of life, put people who were still breathing on haath gaadis, slabs of steel drawers and into cabs to be taken to the hospital. I took the Railway Master and a few others to a hospital in Byculla myself, because there were rumours that hospitals in South Bombay like Cama were also under attack. I stayed at CST the whole night with one other police officer.
I never did what I did for any award or recognition, but I did receive 28 awards since then and a promise that I would get a job in the railway…a promise which is still not fulfilled 7 years on. If it was the son of a minister or politician who had done the same thing, God knows how much they would have done for him, but at the end of it I’m a poor chaiwallah and I have no regrets…I would do it all over again.
by – THE LOGICAL INDIAN
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