I was among the many who narrowly escaped the clutches of the tragedy that left 22 dead and over 20 injured on Friday. I normally reach Elphinstone Road station a little earlier than when I did on Friday. I was a bit late, and took the compartment that arrives closer to the foot-over-bridge that connects Elphinstone Road and Parel stations.
In hindsight, had I not been delayed, I would have been further up on the FOB and could have met a worse fate.
At around 10.15 am, when I alighted, the bridge was packed with commuters, with little forward movement. Since it was raining and many did not carry an umbrella, it seemed that people were not getting off the stairs.
But as more people started alighting from incoming trains, the crowd got restless and wanted to get out of the station. Around this time, I started to climb the Kandivli-end of the FOB that connects the two stations. Rumours of a short circuit made the situation more chaotic.
I do not remember where exactly on the bridge I fell and injured my hands. Another lady, who fell beside me, scratched me on her way down. After realizing that the crowd at the top of the flight of stairs was simply not moving, I got down the stairs, and instead took the foot-over-bridge that meets the road-over-bridge.
It was only when I got off the road-over-bridge near the subway below the ticket counter, that I realised the gravity of the situation – I saw two men and two women being carried away. I have never seen so many dead bodies being carried away before my eyes. There was an ambulance and policemen.
Since my hands and body were hurting after reaching office, my colleagues took me to hospital where my family had come to take me home. Luckily, no major injury was found after all the tests were conducted.
I probably escaped the clutches of death only because I was a bit late today.
(—As told to Ashutosh M Shukla)
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 "Anuradha Desai")
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