Local train bombing survivor misses Mumbai's lifeline, seeks empathy not sympathy

Mumbai, Jul 13 (PTI) A survivor of the 2006 Mumbai train blasts, Chirag Chauhan, remembers the local train not with a heavy heart of a victim, but with the fond nostalgia of a Mumbaikar who simply misses his city's lifeline.

On July 11, 2006, as a 21-year-old Chartered Accountancy student, Chauhan was on his way home when a bomb ripped through his train, forever changing his life as the blast left him with a spinal cord injury, confining him to a wheelchair.

While many of his friends and family members saw this as a monumental tragedy, Chauhan, now a successful Chartered Accountant having his own firm, saw it as the beginning of a different, and in many ways, more fulfilling journey.

"I used to wish that I had missed the train that day, but then I realised whatever destiny has in store is going to happen," he told PTI, with a calm that belies the horror he survived.

He had left work early that day, something he didn't usually do. It was an unusual decision that placed him on a train with a bomb just two to three feet away from him.

The bomb exploded between between Khar and Santacruz stations. While many on the train that day didn't survive, Chauhan somehow did.

Seven blasts occurred at different locations in the Western line of the city's local trains within a span of 15 minutes, killing over 180 persons and injuring several others on July 11, 2006.

The familiar rhythm of a Mumbai local train is a song for Chauhan which he hasn't heard in nearly two decades.

One can visualise the shine in his eyes when he spoke of how much he misses travelling by the local trains.

The screech of the brakes, the slam of the doors, and the collective rush of thousands of lives moving in unison -- these are the memories that today seem to him of a different time, a different life.

"I wish I could travel in the local," says Chauhan as for him getting back on a train won't be about conquering a fear, it will be about reclaiming a small piece of his life and participating in a shared experience -- a simple, human desire for a connection with the city he loves.

He wishes to travel one day on the Vande Bharat Express, which he's heard is more accessible.

"I heard it's more accessible, but I'm just figuring out if I get a chance, I will definitely go to Vande Bharat. They even have an accessible coach, which is wheelchair friendly and accessible. That's what I heard. But I want to try it out," he said.

For Chauhan, getting back on a train won't be about conquering a fear. It will be about reclaiming a small piece of his life and participating in a shared experience -- a simple, human desire for a connection with the city he loves.

Today, at 40, Chauhan is a successful CA with his own practice and staff of 10. He admits to the "systematic handicap" that remains in India for the disabled, from inaccessible buildings to old-school attitudes, but he refuses to let it define his journey.

"But one should not find fault with the system. If you have to achieve, you have to find ways to cross over," he says.

Chauhan has learned to navigate a life that he had not dreamt of, and he's not bitter about it. When people sympathise with him, he accepts the sentiment and moves on.

"You cannot continue to explain to everybody that we need empathy and not sympathy," Chauhan, who identifies himself as a survivor of a tragedy and a man who remade his life from scratch, said.

He explained that he knows that people are attempting to support him, but what he really seeks is a greater connection -- a comprehension of his experience rather than sympathy for his situation.

In 2009, after passing his CA exams, Chauhan was invited to attend a rally in Mumbai to be honoured for his success by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who subsequently became the country's prime minister.

"It was an honour to be recognised," he said, adding, "after that I focused on my personal life, juggling with my own world." For Chauhan, who worked in a multi-national and a bank, focus remained on his new journey -- building a practice, launching a startup and managing other ventures. PTI SKL RT