BENGALURU: "Did you eat?" These were Bhavani Balan's last words to her husband in Chennai.

A distraught Balan N (46) broke down in Mallya Hospital, recalling that Bhavani had spoken to him at 8pm Sunday, just half an hour before an IED blast sent shrapnel piercing through her skull on Church Street. Balan, who deals in old tyres, reached Bengaluru at 6am Monday.

Bleeding profusely, Bhavani (38) was rushed to Mallya Hospital, where she breathed her last around 10.45pm. The body was kept at Mallya Hospital overnight and taken to Victoria Hospital for a postmortem.

Bhavani's children Lakshmi Thevi (11) and Bharat Narayan (15), who were a few inches ahead of their mother when the blast occurred, waited in front of the hospital mortuary.

"I can keep hearing the sound of the blast," a traumatized Lakshmi kept telling her relatives now and then.

Bharat and Lakshmi were taken into the postmortem room one last time, before the body was sent to Chennai in an ambulance. For the kids, the torture just doesn't seem to end. Balan said the funeral would be held on Tuesday morning in Chennai.

A resident of Boobegum Second Lane, near Anna Salai, Bhavani came to Bengaluru with her children for the Christmas vacation on Wednesday night. She stayed with the family of Mahendran N, Balan's elder brother, in Mavalli, near Lalbagh. On Thursday, she took her children and other family members to Mysuru for sightseeing. The family was to return on Sunday but their train tickets were not confirmed and they decided to stay back.

On Sunday, she took her children along with Mahendran's son Karthik, who was injured in the blast, to Church Street. Karthik's sister Priya, her husband Kasturi and daughter Rakshita, and another cousin Nivedita were with them.

Rajkumar A, a relative, told TOI, "It was Kasturi's birthday and the eight of them first planned to go to a restaurant in Jayanagar, but changed their plan and went to MG Road. They had dinner at Empire and were moving towards Amoeba gaming joint when the blast happened."

The city police provided transport to take Bhavani's body and 30 of her relatives to Chennai. They were escorted by a police inspector and woman constable. A deputy superintendent of police from Tamil Nadu police was also in Bengaluru to help the family. A third vehicle with relatives from Bengaluru followed.

Kasturi and his relatives are taking the Chennai Mail on Monday night. The tickets were arranged by the Karnataka government.

Karthik recovering

All the shrapnel that pierced the body of Karthik N (21) one of the five injured in the blast, have been removed. But Karthik continues to be shaken by the pangs of seeing his aunt die in the blast.

Commodore Indru Wadhwani, CEO of Mallya Hospital said,  "About 10 pieces of shrapnel were taken out from his body. The biggest one was 2.1cm by 2.1cm, and others were small pieces of metal. He is in the surgical ICU and doing well. He will be kept under observation for some more days before we discharge him."

Karthik is pursuing MBA from city's Dayanand Sagar College.

Source: TOI