Guna Sindhu Hazarika at a hospital on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Oct. 31: The October 30 blasts did not kill filmmaker Guna Sindhu Hazarika, but it maimed him for life, financially.

As Assam yesterday witnessed a frenzy of activities in memory of those who lost their lives in the devastating explosions, the blind man lay on his hospital bed, hearing it all on television and feeling suffocated.

Hazarika has been leading a life of penury since the administration removed his PCO from the premises of the Kamrup deputy commissioner’s office, which is adjacent to the chief judicial magistrate’s court where one of the three blasts on October 30 in the city took place, for security reasons.

With his primary source of income gone, he and his wife, Aparna Mishra, are surviving on a meagre Rs 1,500 that he gets per month as artiste’s pension from the state government.

“If October 30 did not happen, my life would have been different. I was hearing the television commentary yesterday only to feel alone and frustrated. Lives that were lost in the blasts cannot be compensated with anything. But I am dying everyday since the day of the blasts. A man cannot survive like this and I want to leave this earth forever,” the 66-year-old childless filmmaker told The Telegraph.

Hazarika had directed the moderately successful Assamese children’s film, Abuj Bedana, and was the assistant director in the national-award winning film Sandhyarag by late Bhabendranath Saikia and other hit films like Maniram Dewan, Lalita, Adalat, Moromi and Taramai.

He was also associated with the direction of two Bollywood films, Yeh Khoon Rang Layegee and Jab Yaad Kissi Ki Aate Hai. He had also directed a Bhojpuri film, Gori.

“Even though chief minister Tarun Gogoi recently gave us Rs 50,000 as relief, the amount is not enough to lead a life of dignity at a time when the prices of all essential commodities are skyrocketing,” said his wife.

She said the family desperately needs a permanent source of income which will be possible only after installation of the PCO somewhere in the city.

“My husband has been writing to top officials of the government for reinstallation of the PCO. But for the past two years we were not allotted any plot. My husband is now constantly sick and needs extra money for treatment,” Aparna said.

Manoj Kumar Deka, general manager of Hayat Hospital, said Hazarika was admitted to the hospital around 10 days back in serious condition, suffering from malnutrition.

“Hazarika needs constant medication, emotional and mental support,” he said.