As the city is slowly forgetting the deadly February 21 blasts at Dilsukhnagar, most of those who earn their livelihood close to the blasts site are getting on with their lives.
However, for 30-year-old Pandu Reddy, whose A1 Mirchi Bajji stall bore the brunt of the second blast, life is not the same since the fateful day. Reddy, who once ran a crowded stall, is now working at one of the neighbourhood eateries.
His shop is painted recently, but stands out like a sore thumb. While all the other businesses are running as usual, his is the only one which remains empty, more than a month and a half since the terror attack. “I am in no position to run business. All my relatives, who used to help me, were injured,” said Pandu.
He also suffered a huge loss due to the explosion which shredded everything is his stall.
“Both my bikes and the ice cream fridge worth `2.5 lakh were destroyed,” he lamented. In fact, one of the bikes was new and Pandu is still paying monthly instalments.
“I bought that Passion Pro after making a down payment of `24,000. After the blast, I paid `2,600 twice to the bank,” he explained.
After waiting for over a month, he decided to work elsewhere until he is able to restart business. “I just started working at a stall next to my shop as I have to support my wife and two kids. How much longer can I wait?” he asked.
Pandu needs at least `5 lakh rupees to open shop again. Besides, because his shop is compact, civic authorities and police are not willing permit business there again.
There was already a cylinder explosion at the stall months before the bomb blasts. No one wants to take risk,” explained a police official. Pandu, however, was defensive about the cylinder blast issue. “It was just a gas leak, and not an explosion. They just don’t want me to open my shop again,” he said.
Before the bomb blasts, Pandu used to earn `15,000 to `20,000 a month, from which he would send some money to his parents in Medak district.
“We used to make anything between `4,000 and `5,000 a day, and the profit would be shared among myself, my brother, a cousin and my brother-in-law,” he explained.
Things, however, look bleak for Pandu now, who doubts that his relatives would want to work at the same place again. “I have to ask them. They will all recover in a month or so,” he said.
Asked if he would like to shift elsewhere after what had happened, he shot back, “Will you move from the place where you earn your bread and butter?”.
Although he has taken up a job which fetches him `250 a day, the shattered man now hopes that things will be back to normal for him too.