The Enemy Within

Chapter 6

12th March 1993 – Mumbai

The Sea Rock Hotel was considered to be one of the finest hotels in the city. Set against the backdrop of the Arabian Sea in Bandra, the plush suburb of Mumbai, it was the place to be.

And what better place to celebrate a 50th birthday brunch for Roshan Kapoor – who that afternoon was raising a champagne glass to his lips with his wife Reshma, as his young 12-year-old son Rohan looked on happily.

Roshan Kapoor had just started a successful investment company dabbling in the equity markets and was basking in the glory of making it two perfect years of running a prosperous business with a happy clientele. He had decided to splurge on his milestone birthday and treat his family to the best the city could offer. It was the perfect family outing and a picture perfect day for a celebration.

The chocolate-frosted birthday cake arrived and Rohan jumped up in excitement, urging his father to blow out the candles and make a wish. The cake cutting formalities done, Rohan gorged on his favourite chocolate cake while his parents looked on in amusement. After successfully demolishing half the cake and getting quite a bit all over his hands and face, Rohan headed to the washroom to clean up.

Just as he entered the gent's washroom, there was a loud blast and Rohan was thrown headlong inside and ended up cracking his head against the opposite wall, knocked out cold.

When he came to, all he could see was smoke, debris and people running around in panic. All he could hear, apart from the ringing in his ears were screams of terror and wails of despair. As he stumbled out of the washroom heading for the table, he saw the entire restaurant was blown apart. There were dead bodies strewn all over the floor and people missing body parts were screaming in agony. All this was too much for the little boy to fathom and he collapsed once again.

When Rohan regained consciousness, he was in a hospital bed and his father's parents were at his bedside. His grandmother was weeping and his grandfather was struggling to keep it together. One look at them and the 12-year-old knew his life would never be the same again – that his parents were gone forever.

As the days passed, Rohan heard the story multiple times and even then grasped only a bit of what happened – that his parents were killed in a terrorist attack on the city. Multiple bombs were detonated across the city that fateful afternoon, in which over 200 innocent lives were lost and over a 1,000 injured. At his age he just couldn't understand it all, and slowly withdrew into a shell.

He became quiet, angry and aggressive. He stopped going to school, became irritable and used to lash out for the smallest of reasons. His grandparents were at their wits end and on the advise of a psychologist and a school counsellor, they decided to enrol Rohan into a boarding school far away from the city.