I have nothing to say to you. What has happened has happened. I don’t want to think about it anymore, said Gobinda Bhowmick
Gobinda Bhowmick, 46, is standing in front of a tea stall. He leans casually against a parked scooter and chats with his friends. As soon as he gets wind of the fact that we’re from the media, his erstwhile jovial face, crumples into a frown.
“I have nothing to say to you. What has happened has happened. I don’t want to think about it anymore,” he says.
After a bit of persuasion, he relents. Bhowmick had been badly injured in the 2003 twin blasts. He used to own a jewellery shop in Zaveri Bazaar then. He doesn’t have that shop anymore; he’s been reduced to working as a broker in the market. “I had to sell my shop to pay for my treatment. That blast ruined my life. I spent Rs16 lakh on treatment, and my leg still hurts,” he says.
Bhowmick is not too concerned about the HC’s decision to confirm the death penalty for the three convicted. “I don’t really think about them. They should die. But will that bring respite to my condition?”
His words are laced with cynicism, born out of constant struggles with the compensation from the government. “I had to fight so hard to even get the meagre Rs25,000 that was my due. Each of the injections that I had to take for my treatment cost Rs24,000.”
Bhowmick was admitted to JJ Hospital, where he got free treatment.
“But there were drugs that were not available for free. My brother had to arrange for them to be bought from outside. Each medicine cost Rs8,000-Rs10,000.”
In the four months that he spent at JJ Hospital, Bhowmick also employed a person to help him go to the toilet.
After four months, Bhowmick shifted to Chanditala Nirogya Niketan, a private hospital in the Hoogly district of West Bengal. There, over a period of years and at great cost, he recovered.
Ask him why he came back to Bombay, and he looks at you as if you’ve lost your marbles. “I have my entire life here, my job, my brother, my wife and my kid.” Bhowmick has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, Aniket. “I’m not in the least bit scared to come back to work here. Life is tough enough, without having to worry about getting blown up. I’ve made my peace.”
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