Month after Red Fort blast, victims' families struggle to come to terms with grief

New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) Clocks have ticked, days have passed but grief sits in homes of Red Fort blast victims like dust that refuses to lift.

What looked like a single violent moment has unfolded into an entire month of numbness -- of unanswered questions, hollow rooms, and lives permanently scarred.

A massive blast rocked Delhi on November 10 when a Hyundai i20 car exploded at 6.52 pm near the Red Fort, killing 15 people and injuring several others.

The impact of the explosion left several vehicles damaged, with visuals from the site showing mangled bodies and scattered debris.

Among those killed was Amar Kataria, a pharmaceutical businessman who worked in Chandni Chowk’s Bhagirath Palace.

That evening, Kataria stepped out after finishing work, unaware that within minutes the world he had built will fall apart.

In the first days after the tragedy, his three-year-old son kept running to the door at every tiny sound.

“He used to turn around every time someone walked past,” Amar’s relative Swadesh Sethi had said.

“You could see he thought his father was coming.” A month later, the child’s confusion has not eased but has simply changed shape.

While he no longer waits by the door, he still does not know that his father will never return. He thinks he is out somewhere and will return soon.

"He still thinks Amar is somewhere outside,” Sethi said, his voice choking as he tried to describe what the family is going through.

"He still asks simple things about his father’s whereabouts… Things we cannot answer. How do you tell a child that his universe has fallen apart,” Sethi asked.

Inside the Kataria home, Amar’s wife Kriti has barely spoken since that fateful night.

Trapped in a silence so deep that she has not been able to leave home since the blast.

Kriti now sits at one place for hours, her eyes fixed somewhere far away, Sethi said.

"She is highly qualified but she cannot find the strength to even leave the room,” Sethi said.

He also requested the government to help Kriti find a job as that would distract her from the grief and also provide financial stability to the family.

"She has a child who will never see his father,” Sethi said.

Amar's body was charred beyond recognition but tattoos reading ‘Mom my first love’, ‘Dad my strength’, and ‘Kriti’ helped the family identify him.

Another victim's family is stuck in the same month-long night.

Noman, a 23-year-old who had come to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh's Jhinjhana to buy supplies for his cosmetics shop, never returned home.

His friend survived with injuries and is still recovering at a hospital.

“Noman had come to Delhi that very day to purchase supplies for his shop," his relative Sonu, who lives in the capital, said.

"By evening, everything was over." Noman's elder brother Sahil, who suffers from a kidney ailment and is admitted to a hospital, still does not know that his younger brother is dead.

He believes Noman is injured and recovering in another ward, Sonu said.

“How do you break such a news to a man who is already in so much pain? Their father is aged. The family's only earning member is gone. It has been a month and Sahil is still ailing. What if we tell him and he goes into shock? He is too vulnerable. He is living a truth we cannot correct. Not yet,” Sonu said.

In Shahdara’s Rohtas Nagar, Ankush Sharma, who went to visit the Gauri Shankar temple with his neighbour and friend Rahul Kaushik on the evening of November 10, is fighting a different battle.

Both were caught in the blast. While Rahul was sent home after treatment for burn injuries, Ankush’s struggle was harsher. He lost an eye and suffered hearing loss in one ear.

Ankush spent days at the LNJP Hospital before being discharged, only to be admitted again to AIIMS after his wounds worsened.

“When they look into the mirror, both Rahul and Ankush get a shock,” family friend Pradeep Kumar said.

Ankush, 27, worked in a jewellery shop. His parents, already fragile with fear, are sinking into depression.

Thirty nights have passed since the explosion, but for these families, the month has been like one long night without dawn.

Every home touched by the blast carries two worlds now -- the world before 6:52 pm on November 10, and the world after it. PTI SGV ARI