Just a 100-metre stretch in the Dadar Kabutarkhana area here shows the contrast. The place where a bomb exploded on Wednesday evening has been cordoned off. Shops on the road are closed and so is the school which stands just a wall away from the bus stop where the IED exploded.
But barely 100 metres away, other shops are open and business is as usual. “Yes. There was a blast there yesterday [on Wednesday]. We all thought initially that it was a cylinder blast. But then there was a lot of commotion. The police appeared on the scene within 15 minutes. We all shut our shops immediately after that,” K.R. Jodatar, an umbrella shop owner on the unaffected side, told The Hindu.
But all of them opened the shops at the usual time on Thursday morning, said Jodatar. “Everything is fine now. It is just that the area is sealed by the police, so there is no traffic there.”
However, a sense of helplessness is evident among the same people who must have run around to help the victims on Wednesday evening.
There were also some who did not bother to check what happened. “We did not go to see what happened. There was no need. We saw lot of commotion and closed our shops and went home. The blast was so loud that our shop felt the brunt. Some loose soil fell off the ceiling, this place shattered,” said Brahmadeo Gupta, owner of a small utilities shop near Kabutarkhana, showing the place close to where he sat.
“Mumbai is back on its feet. Whether it is out of compulsion or grit, who knows,” said Shreerang Gandhe, a customer at a peanuts shop.
Missing in action were many street vendors selling vegetables. Why? “There is fear. There is no protection for us. But what to do? We can't stop working,” said Bablu, a vendor. He did not know why many others did not turn up on Thursday morning.
Residents in the Dadar Kabutarkhana area said no CCTV camera was installed in any of the shops on the street, where the blast occurred. It mainly has hardware and plywood shops. “We have been staying here for years. There are no CCTV cameras installed in any of the shops here,” said Arvind Mehta, who stays at Jayendra Bhavan, right opposite the blast site.
