Blessed with a son after Terrible Tuesday, family has moved to Pune

Shlok will never know that his father was a jovial, ever-smiling man. For he was born 33 days after his father, K Bhujang Shetty...

Shlok will never know that his father was a jovial, ever-smiling man. For he was born 33 days after his father, K Bhujang Shetty, died in the blasts of 7/11. But young Shreya knew her father well — like an 8-year-old can. She now believes if she prays hard enough, her dad will come back.

With two youngsters in the family, wife Sumangala (35) hasn’t had the luxury to mourn. She worries about the future of their children and sometimes even calls out for her husband without even realising he’s not there. “That day, he called me from Dadar station at 6 pm saying he would be boarding the train. But I couldn’t hear anything in the usual commotion of the station. That was the last time I heard his voice.”

Bhujang or KB Shetty, as he was popularly known among friends and colleagues, was a structural consultant who had quit his job and was operating form their Kandivali home. Mostly out of the city on tours, it was unfortunate that he found himself on a train in Dadar to go to Bandra.

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“For the past few years, he was operating from home. He was a complete family man,” recalls Sumangala. “We used to spend a lot of time together whenever he was free.” Soon after Terrible Tuesday, her family brought her to Pune since she was in the last month of her pregnancy.

Shreya was admitted to the St Joseph’s School in Pashan and the family tried desperately to start all over again. “He was very attached to his daughter,” says Sumangala’s mother Vasanthi. Shreya, she says, is no longer the bubbly and chirpy girl she used to be. “She has become very quiet,” adds Sumangala. “Sometimes she thinks praying hard will get her father back.”

Four harrowing months have passed since the day, but the family can’t forget how July unfolded. From the call in the evening to the time they ultimately traced Bhujang’s body at Bhaba Hospital, it was a nightmare that still haunts them.

For Sumangala, the responsibility of bringing up two children is weighing on her. “I have been a housewife for the past 10 years. Now I will have to look for a job. My family is there but I still need to stand on my feet,” she says.

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But she knows she’ll have the help and support of Bhujang’s friends and colleagues all of whom rushed to help them during the initial days after the accident. She also keeps thinking of the good times, always cherishing the rapport they shared as a couple — “he would always be smiling even when he was tense. I remember, I had to make out from his eyes to know his state of mind.”