Artist who lost limb to blast offers others a helping hand

Life must be celebrated, whatever happens. That’s the credo Mahendra Pitale, a survivor of the 2006 serial train bombings, lives by. The 51-year-old Mira Road resident, who lost his left hand elbow down, today raises a toast to life with his new robotic hand, a prosthetic limb which has changed life for the better.

“Today, I ride my motorbike, do rifle-shooting...” Pitale trills excitedly. Soon after losing a part of the limb, the fine artist who did painting, sculpting and carving, admits he feared most the inability to work besides not being able to continue his passion to ride bikes.

The advanced limb he currently wears allows him to do much more. “It is the seventh prosthetic I’ve got for myself. I can feed commands through which I can perform 16 daily functions using the hand...,” says Pitale.

The palm of the robotic hand opens and closes, he can use each of the fingers to point out, according to commands he gives. “This hand has been given to me at no cost by a company from Poland, Aether Biomedical, to use for a year... It has helped me a big deal,” he says with gratitude.

Until the day of the train bomb blasts, life was smooth, recalls Pitale. He was working in the Gulf, and had come to India on a 2-month vacation when his family insisted that he “get married and settle down”. So, the artist took up a job with a company in Vile Parle. While the family was thinking of his marriage, life had other plans. On July 11, 2006, Pitale was on the footboard of the first class compartment which was ripped apart in the explosion at Mahim station.

He woke up in hospital. “The doctors said they had to amputate part of my hand as the veins were badly affected. The severed part was preserved under my cot to be shown to my parents...” he recalls.

But Pitale is a survivor. “I told myself I have to get up and get out of this trauma,” he says. After a month in hospital and two months of recovery at home, the office called up, asking him to return. “Going back and getting immersed in work helped a big deal in mental healing,” admits Pitale who makes it a point to visit Mahim railway station on the annual blasts anniversary.

Isn’t it painful and traumatic? “It’s my way of giving out a message to terrorists who did this that your evil plan can’t stop us from living. Also, I want to tell other blast victims that they need to get up and march on in life,” says Pitale.

He’s still a bachelor, but happily married to the idea of helping other victims of the train bombings through a support group they’ve cobbled up. He voluntarily met train accident survivor Monika More, who lost her hands after falling into a gap at Ghatkopar station. “Her family told me that after I met her and told her about myself, she smiled for the first time after the accident,” recalls Pitale. Similarly, Pitale sowed hope into another youngster, who had lost his legs in a train accident. “This young man, Shaikh, admitted he was contemplating suicide...”

The past 18 years have brought out some hidden abilities he never knew existed. “I have realised that today I can perform certain tasks I never thought I could perform when I was able-bodied,” points out Pitale, adding that at the workplace, he used bare hands for his art work. Today, he has upgraded himself with knowledge of software which he uses to do the same jobs.

Small things in life have changed here and there is how he sums up the past 18 years. “Earlier, I used to travel in the first-class compartment.. Now I get into the handicapped coach. When I see the plight of other physically challenged people, I thank god for what I am.”


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