Husband blames self for wife death

By Chandrashekar G.

Bengaluru

July 25: When death came calling for Sudha, the 40-year-old housewife was standing at a bus stop in Madivala while her husband was only yards away. He survived the explosion, the first of the eight serial blasts that rocked the city on Friday. Sudha did not.

"I was behind Madivala bus stop when I heard a deafening sound and saw my wife being thrown in the air. For a few seconds, my mind went blank and I was blinded by the blast. When the smoke cleared I saw her lying on the ground in a pool of blood," said T. Ravi.

Even before he could rush to his wife’s side, a passers-by rushed him to Nimhans. Ravi, who suffered injuries to the face and the back of the head and received three stitches, is out of danger. But he is disconsolate, and blames himself for his wife’s death.

According to Ravi, the couple was returning from St. Johns’s Hospital where he had consulted a doctor for chest pain.

They were waiting for a bus to return home when the blast, the most powerful of the nine explosions, claimed its first and only victim.

Sudha was unlucky, said Ravi. There were many people waiting at the bus stand, jostling for shelter from the steady drizzle.

But the bomb was planted right under where Sudha was sitting.

"I had no one but Sudha in my life. We have no children but we have been happily married for eight years," he said. "I cannot believe that she is dead."

Ravi, an errand boy with Nerolac paints at Bannerghatta, had eloped with Sudha and married her against the wishes of their parents. Sudha was employed at a garment factory in Bannerghatta.

Ravi is from Kurubaraboodihal near Javagal in Chikmagalur district while Sudha is from Kondabagilu.

Meanwhile, chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa visited Nimhans on Friday evening and consoled blast survivor T. Ravi, whose wife Sudha was killed in the first of the nine explosions on Friday. Mr Yeddyurappa said Ravi would be paid compensation of Rs 50,000.

"Devaru doddavanu neenu ulidukonde. Enu hedarabeda naanu iddene. Ninage enu sahakara sahaya beku naanu koduttene. (You survived by the Grace of the Almighty. Do not worry. I will help you)," Mr Yeddyurappa told Ravi.

He directed the police commissioner of Bengaluru, Mr Shankar Bidari, to post a policeman at the hospital and assured Ravi that his medical expenses would be paid.