Haroon Md Shah (70) Worked in a colour-dye unit, a doting grandfather

After the 2006 Malegaon blasts, Haroon Shah Mohammed Shah had become a recluse. His daughter, Naushad (40), says, “He was shaken by the images of the blast scene and it took him a while to understand the enormity of the situation.” Seventy-year-old Haroon, the family says, stopped interacting with their neighbours and became suspicious everytime people assembled anywhere close or if there was even a scuffle in Malegaon. “He had lost trust in people. He would scold us if he saw any of us standing and watching street scuffles which are so common in Malegaon,” says son Nisar (27). On the day of the blast, he had gone to get water from the tea shop with another family friend. He never returned home. “He had gone for namaz when the blast occurred,” says his eldest son, Naushad (40).

The children recall him as a strict father who was also very compassionate when it came to their aspirations and dreams. So, he allowed his two sons to start their own entrepreneurship and veer from the family tradition of working in colour dying unit. To his grandchildren, he was the doting grandfather who ensured he spent time with them. His wife, Zugrabi (65), did not talk as she is observing iddat.

Shaikh Mushtaq (25) A labourer, he was waiting for his first child’s birth

Shaikh Mushtaq became a father on October 4. Only that he would never know. Mushtaq died on September 29 while on his way back from namaz. His father, Shaikh Yusuf (61), says he had aged earlier than time. His daughter-in-law, Shaikh Mushtaq’s wife, left with the newborn last week after the family received the compensation. Yusuf says the blast changed their lives. “First it took my son, now I am not allowed to meet my grandson, the family’s only heir.”

... contd.