Then, for two months, I had to undergo treatment as my leg took time to heal. It was a painful experience, but I feel I was lucky to have been left with a fractured leg. Nothing compared to what many, many others have had to suffer.

I remember the day vividly. Initially, no one knew what had happened. Only when we saw a compartment completely blown apart did we realise what had happened. Several people around me were badly injured and bleeding profusely.

It started raining and all the telephone lines were jammed. We couldn’t call anyone. I wasn’t able to get in touch with my parents. But there were people on the platform and nearby buildings who gave us water and eatables; they were all were very helpful. People got into the compartments to help people out... rushed the injured to the hospital.

I fell on the tracks and felt a pain in my leg. I couldn’t walk. People helped me get to the Santacruz station and into an autorickshaw. After about two hours, I reached home. My mother was worried as she knew I would be on that train. My parents took me to a doctor, who told me I had fractured my left leg.

After two months of treatment, I took up a job with a firm in Chandivali and am also pursuing a part-time MBA course.

There is something else... That day my railway pass was to get over. A few days before 7/11, I went to renew it. While standing in line, I thought of buying a first-class pass because second-class compartments are very crowded. But I wasn’t carrying that much cash, so had to take my regular second-class pass. If I had managed to buy a first-class pass that day, I would have been in the compartment in which the blast occurred. It could have been serious.

One year has passed. You cannot sit and think of what happened. You need to go on. Memories will be there, but these don’t make a difference. I still have the bag I was carrying that day, though I don’t have the books and my other belongings. I have travelled several times by that train again. There’s no fear of any sort, you cannot work like that in Mumbai.

What happened has happened. Life does not stop.

(As told to Swatee Kher)