Mumbai remembers victims of 26/ 11 terror attacks
LIFE IMPROVES FOR SOME SURVIVORS WHILE OTHERS REMAIN HAUNTED BY THE SIEGE
As Mumbaikars in several parts of the city paid homage to the 166 victims of the 26/ 11 terror attacks, a single mother, injured at Leopold Café five years ago, says the siege changed her life — for the better.
“My heart goes out to all those who lost their loved ones and I believe such an attack should never happen again, but unfortunately I don’t find any preventive measures being taken by the government,” Sarika Upadhyay, 37, told Gulf News.
“When a grenade went off, I ended up with 108 shrapnels in my body, out of which only one has been removed.” She has been left with lingering pain, unable to do many tasks. But she is thankful that two of her three friends, with whom she was dining at the popular café in Colaba, escaped with small injuries.
“Amid all the destruction and sorrow that Mumbaikars faced, I found myself being taken care of by the Taj Hotel Group. It gave me a new life and helped me build a successful career,” she says.
“Not being highly educated, I could never find a good job and always had difficulties making ends meet. After that attack, Taj began to take care of all my needs: I was asked whether I wanted to study and needed any training. At a counselling session, they felt I could pursue a beautician’s course at a good institute.”
New life
Even as Taj helped her get trained while giving her a monthly stipend of Rs9,000 ( Dh528), her son’s education — including tuition, books and uniforms — was taken care of by the hotel group.
She now runs her own beauty salon in Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai, where she has moved home, and also manages another in Goregaon. “I can now say that I’m financially secure and ever grateful to Taj for all they did for me and my son, now 14.”
Not so lucky are two poor vegetable traders from Solapur. “We were all sleeping when the firing started and the announcements repeatedly came telling us to lie down. We did not understand what was happening,” said Shabeer Abdul Salam, 52.
“We are suffering only because the government could not take care of its people.”