Mohammed Kundiwala was to board night train to Ahmedabad on 11/7 to meet his fiancee.
Mohammed Kundiwala was to board night train to Ahmedabad on 11/7 to meet his fiancee.
When Mohammed Salim Kundiwala boarded a train which would take him to his Mira Road home on July 11, he had another, longer journey in mind. One for which he had already booked tickets that evening and which would probably culminate in marriage. The same night Salim, a businessman from Mira Road, would have boarded a train to Ahmedabad to meet his would-be bride.
Salim died in the blast that took place at Matunga. He is survived by his 65-year-old mother, the lone member in his family.
His two friends, Irfan Sheikh and Shakil Khan, were supposed to accompany him to Ahmedabad in the Aravalli Express. “The last call I got from him was at 5:32 pm. He told me the tickets had been confirmed. Then after sometime I learned about the blasts. I was worried that Salim could be in the same train and dialled his cell hundreds of times, but in vain as the network was jammed,” says Irfan. Salim didn’t call either. His friends and relatives became desperate to get news-any news—about him. They finally got a call from the Bombay Central police station, informing them that a severely injured Salim had been admitted to the ICU of KEM hospital. “He was operated on his left eye and the ring finger of his left hand was amputed on Thursday. The doctor also warned that his left foot could also be amputed,” Shakil says. But before that could happen, he expired on Saturday evening. Salim, a divorcee, was into the business of making women’s sandals in Nagpada. His relatives believe he could have survived had they shifted him to a better hospital.
Kitabunisa Kundiwala, his mother, is inconsolable. Her husband died a decade earlier and Salim was all she had. “I will not go to my native place but stay here with the memories of my beloved child,” she says.
However, Salim is not the only blast victim from the Asmita Vintage society in the Naya Nagar area of Mira Road. His friend and chairperson of the society, Ijaz Sheikh, also died on 11/7—in the Borivali blast.
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