Every time 40-year-old R Rangaraj walks through a metal detector in a railway station, the machine starts beeping. Body frisking would yield nothing, but the detector would still beep. "I have a hard time explaining that metal pieces are stuck inside my body,’’ Rangaraj says, referring to the pellets and scrap from one of the bombs that went off in Coimbatore city on February 14, 1998. Breadwinner of the family, Rangaraj was severely wounded in the blast; 20 years hence, the ordeal seems to be never-ending. Just two months ago, he underwent yet another surgery to remove a piece of nail in his ankle. Rangaraj’s family is lucky that he survived; many lost their breadwinners and heirs.
Rangaraj was employed in a tailoring unit at Town Hall in 1998. On the fatal day, he went home for lunch and was returning to his workplace in a bicycle around 4 pm. That was when a bomb went off at Mohammed Khani Ravuthar Street near Kempatti Colony and he was thrown off the bicycle.
"When I opened my eyes, I saw lot of bodies lying around me, many of them mutilated. I tried to get on my feet. But my left ankle was torn and a nerve in my right leg was cut. Shrapnel had pierced my body at many places," said Rangaraj.
He was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH). "I was made to lie on the floor amid hundreds of injured people when another bomb went off right inside the hospital," he reminisces.
Rangaraj was in and out of many hospitals for two months. He received skin grafts on the left leg and ankle. "I was 20 years old when the blast maimed me and cut short my youth. I cannot walk fast and keep my legs folded," he added.
A few months ago, when he felt a pain in the right leg, an x ray was taken and doctors told him that nail pieces were embedded. He underwent another surgery and the nail pieces were removed. "After the blast, I lost my job in the tailoring unit as I could not use my legs for operating the sewing machine. Several metal and glass pieces that pierced my body had not been removed. Whenever I walk through a metal detector, it starts to beep. Some months ago, a security guard in a gold smithery unit was checking me with a metal detector when it started beeping. They suspected that I was concealing gold. I had a hard time explaining to them the reason for the beep," said Rangaraj.
Rangaraj is married and has two children. "My health condition is a constant worry and I am uncertain about my future. I have still not come out of the shock. I hope the state government will offer me a job to help me lead a good life," said Rangaraj.
Kempatti colony was rocked by two bombs blasts on that day. One of these claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy. S Ramakrishnan, a Class IX student, was playing in front of his house around 4 pm when he heard a loud explosion. Thinking it was a cracker blast in a temple, he rushed to the area. That was when the second bomb went off.
"The blast shattered our lives. I ran to the spot and found my grievously injured son writhing on the ground and asking for a sip of water. Police personnel tried to give him soda, but I stopped them. I laid him on my lap and that’s where he breathed his last," said S Vijayalakshmi, Ramakrishnan’s mother.
The body was sent to the CMCH. "I ran behind the ambulance to the hospital where I noticed hundreds of people who were injured in the blasts. He was our only son, and we lost him. I have not celebrated Pongal or Diwali for the past 20 years," said Vijayalakshmi.
Her husband passed away a few years ago and she lives with her elderly mother in a house at Kempatti Colony.
