On Jaipur’s night of terror, strangers became family, in flesh and blood

Another injured, Ravindra Kumar Singh, is grateful for the timely help offered by a stranger. “I had splinters in my legs and abdomen and was bleeding profusely. If the person had not helped me in time, I would not have survived,” he says.

As the people here still struggle to recover from the horror of Tuesday’s serial blasts, Jaipur has emerged as the city that cares. Where strangers loaded the injured into their personal vehicles and rushed them to hospital. And where thousands queued up outside hospitals to donate blood.

In fact, hospitals had to turn away many people who wanted to donate blood as they didn’t have sufficient storage facilities. Within hours of the blasts, hundreds of students and social workers trooped into hospitals to donate blood. Long queues were seen outside hospital blood banks.

“We were able to secure blood for 30-odd patients who underwent operations within three hours of the incident. We also stocked about 900 more units of blood, but had to turn away many others as we don’t have the facility to stock more units,” says Dr Ashok Panagariya, Dean, SMS Medical College & Hospital. In all, 600 units of blood were used for the victims.

“However, as everyone who came to the hospital insisted on donating blood, their names were added to a list of people who could be contacted in case there was a need for blood. The list now has the names of over 2,500 residents, all willing to be at the hospital at any time of day or night,” he adds.

A group of students and residents also came forward to offer services like transportation of dead bodies. Many could be seen outside the mortuary and the emergency ward, offering their personal vehicles for the grieving families.

The Muslim community leaders also pitched in. The Shanti Samiti, a committee formed by the local administration after the last riots in the city to maintain...