Eighteen-year-old Kamlesh opened his eyes on Wednesday morning, on a hospital bed at Sion Hospital’s Ward No 2. Both his legs, ripped off by the blast on the Borivali local at Mahim station, have been amputated below the knees. Kamlesh — who works as a delivery boy for a pani puriwala and lives in a room in Dharavi slum — wasn’t even in the train compartment that was blown up.

‘‘I was on the next platform, waiting to go to Lower Parel for a delivery and let the first train pass as it was very crowded,’’ he says adding, ‘‘That is when a Borivali-bound train came on the other platform and the next thing I felt was one of my legs being blown off.’’

He says he also remembers his second leg being blown off and thinking ‘‘I am now going to die’’, before passing out. When The Indian Express met him at his bedside on Wednesday morning, the youngest of 10 blast victims in the ward, Kamlesh is writhing in pain, contemplating a bleak future. Worst, he has nobody to talk to.

‘‘My parents and siblings live in Uttar Pradesh, in Mau’s Lakhni village. My seth is not here yet, though someone has called him up,’’ he murmurs. His bed carries a note on which is scribbled ‘Kamlesh (unknown)’. It will stay till his family arrives.

Later, a railway police constable stopped by, handed him Rs 1,000, and rolled out the questions: ‘‘Why were you at the station? Why were you going to Lower Parel?’’ An intimidated Kamlesh answered haltingly.

... contd.