A deep gash on the head and pieces of glass still embedded in his legs and arms are reminders of last week’s bombing of the Indian Embassy. Probably scarred for life, most people his age would have been in hospital for weeks with such injuries. But when the embassy resumed normal operations today, 75-year-old Syed Qassim was the first in queue to get a visa.

A dry-fruit trader now retired, Qassim had come to the embassy exactly a week ago as he wanted to go to India for dental treatment. Though the attack landed him in hospital with serious injuries, it failed to break his resolve to travel to India.

“Why should I be afraid (to come here again)? This is not the work of humans. There were small children nearby who died in the attack,” said Qassim as he stood in the queue to get his passport stamped for India. His wife Amina, who rushed from New York — his family is based there — to take care of her husband, told The Indian Express how pieces of glass and metal are still embedded in his body. “I will take him to AIIMS in Delhi. That is the only place that can make him better,” she said.

Exactly a week after the blast, the embassy was back on its feet today, resuming all consular operations. Within three hours, 66 visas had been issued, most of them to patients and students studying in India, indicating that as far as Indo-Afghan relations go, the suicide attack has not changed anything.

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