13 Events / Thoughts / Experiences Wendy went through on 11/7

1. At around 6:25, as we were passing through Mahim station I heard a deafening boom, that sent a sentation of fear, panic & helplessness down my spine
2. The compartment started filling with a black soot. Several women started shouting fire, bomb, and screaming.
3. The train came to a halt almost instantaneously, all of us started jumping out of the train. I jumped out onto the tracks, without even thinking whether I would be able to make it down properly. (it quite a distance to jump & I’m just 5 feet tall. I was wearing 2 inch healed sandals)
4. I reached safely down and nearly fainted with shock at the site before me. I saw a dead man on the seat near what would have been the window seat of the men’s 1st class, I saw several more sprawled out in the compartment not moving.
5. The whole side of the compartment was ripped open and there was blood, soot & mangled remains of the compartment.
6. I just stared for a while. I started trembling and frantically reached for my cell phone.
7. I tried frantically to get my husband on his cell, but the network was constantly busy. I was getting desperate.
8. I tried my sister in Goa. I knew they would soon find out and I also knew if i could get through they too could try to contact Ralph & the babysitter as well.
9. I was fine physically, I do not think any ladies got hurt physically in our compartment, but I am not to sure of the extent of our mental and emotional trauma.
10. I sent an SMS to my husband to call me if he could, and that he would have to pick up the kids. I did not want hm to panic.
11. Ralph, my husband managed to get a call through, but I was only able to say that there had been a bomb on our train, before the line got disconnected.
12. The passers by and the men from the other compartments, jumped into the train to take out the bodies. People were taken out and handed to other men waiting out. There were no police, no railway personnel, no stretchers…Atleast 20 minutes lapsed before the police showed their face. By then most of those inside were removed from the train.
13. We decided to try to make our way home. We had hear that there were ateast 2 more blasts besides ours. We had no concrete details. We walked till the bus depot at Mahim. It was over crowded. We continued until we reached Bandra. We took another 20 minutes to manage to get an autorickshaw driver to take us to Borivli. i reached home by 10:00 pm or so…