One year on, the victim’s family is still numb

Grief has sealed the lips of Gangaram Kolve. The old father of a young man spends his day sitting in a small room in a chawl in Mumbai. His son Tushar, who brought home the bacon and gave a secure roof, is no more. He’s been gone for a year.

Tushar Kolve a 29-year-old diamond worker lost his life in the blast in Mumbai’s Opera House on July 13, 2011. Bombs also ripped through two other places that day- Zaveri Bazaar and Kabutar Khana in Dadar.

“He does not do anything. He can’t work. He is disturbed,” said Tushar’s mother Sunanda Kolve speaking of her husband.

Ms. Kolve can’t work either. “She gave up her job as a domestic worker after Tushar’s demise. She is under a lot of tension and pressure,” Mr. Kolve gathers some strength to speak.

Their son’s loss has taken a toll on the family’s already meagre earning. “He was the main earner. He used to earn Rs. 4,000. I would some and our daughter-in-law also earns a living making imitation jewellery. When Tushar started earning, we got this room. Earlier, we stayed in a rented accommodation,” Ms. Kolve told The Hindu .

The old mother remembered Tushar’s day. “He would leave for work at 7 a.m. and return by 9.30 p.m. Before leaving office for home, he would give me a call. That day there was no call.”

Tushar, who worked as a peon in the diamond district, ran errands. On July 13, he ran one such errand and was returning to his office when the blast occurred.

“He was alive when he was in the hospital. Doctors were treating an injury on his leg. However, he sustained a serious injury at the back of his head and neck which was not visible. He was losing a lot of blood due to that. Before anyone realised there was an injury there, Tushar had breathed his last.”

Mr. Kolve’s last memory of his son is seeking him through a glass with the oxygen mask on his face.

While the Kolve family lost their son, three children in the Ahuja family in Ulhasnagar, Thane district, lost their father.

Lalchand Ahuja, 61, who worked in the imitation jewellery business, was killed in the Zaveri Bazaar blast.

A lot has changed for the family which is getting a grip on life. “We shut our shop after papa’s death,” Kumar Ahuja, Mr. Ahuja’s son told The Hindu .

He is now working as a supervisor in an automobile shop, a job he took up immediately after Mr. Ahuja’s death.

Kumar’s sisters Jyoti and Geeta Ahuja have also found back-office jobs.

“In one year, everything changes. Whatever happened, happened. It’s fine now. I am planning to move ahead in the automobile line. Both my sisters will be married off next year. We are doing alright,” Kumar said.