Boloram Roy stands outside his paan shop in front of which the first blast took place at Nalbari on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Nov. 22: Death, like life, has a very uncanny sense of timing.

When the first bomb went off in front of his roadside paan shop in Nalbari town this morning, Boloram Roy was having a haircut in a saloon just a few metres away. As he rushed out to find out if his shop had suffered any damage, the second bomb went off in front of the saloon, killing the barber who was attending to him just a few minutes ago.

Roy, in his late thirties, survived twice within a span of around 10 minutes but still considers himself unlucky enough to be alive to see so many well-known faces among the dead and injured.

“Oh my god! Oh my god,” a shell-shocked Roy was muttering as he turned back and saw the bloodied body of 42-year-old Paban Thakur. “He was talking to me just a few moments ago, joking about my thinning hair as he was snipping it and asking about my family,” Roy told The Telegraph after the twin blasts.

Roy’s shop did not suffer any damage but one of his regular customers, Dipankar Goswami, was not so lucky.

A businessman, Goswami, had just parked his motorcycle in front of the shop to have a paan when the first blast occurred. As people and police rushed in, Goswami decided to move it elsewhere and parked it in front of the saloon.

“I had no idea that it was such a foolish idea. My bike caught fire in the second blast and is all but gone,” Goswami said.

Tales of despair spread across two districts as family members of the dead and injured searched for their near ones at the Nalbari Civil Hospital as well as the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

At the Nalbari hospital, 22-year-old Purabi Das was inconsolable as she and her two children cried over the body of her husband and their father, 27-year-old Dilip Das.

A driver by profession, Das, had come to the market just as a matter of habit and was killed instantly when the second bomb went off. Everyone present in the hospital was moved by the sight of the wailing young woman.

“What an age to become a widow. God can be very cruel,” said 22-year-old Bikash Haloi, a college student who was also injured. But he knew that his pain would be gone very soon. But Purabi will have to live with hers for the rest of her life.

At the GMCH, anxious and panic-stricken relatives of blast victims thronged the wards for news about their injured family members.

Altogether 36 people injured in the Nalbari blasts were rushed to the GMCH and of them a 45-year-old man, Sikander Thakur, was declared dead on arrival.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Darjina Begum said she was not feeling well for last few days and was on her way to see a doctor along with her husband Kader Ali, 45, and 11-year-old son Akid Zaman when the bomb went off.

Both her husband and son are now battling for their lives at the GMCH. “We are innocent people, why are they attacking us? What wrong have we done?” an inconsolable Darjina said.

Outside the emergency ward of the GMCH, Majnur Ali was struggling to come to terms with what happened to his son. Ali’s 25-year-old son, Tariq Anam, sustained grievous head injuries in the second blast.

“He rushed out of the house to see what happened following the first explosion. I am still waiting for a word from the doctors on the condition of my son,” Ali said as his eyes turned misty.