Scenes from the SMS Hospital in Jaipur

Here is the map of of the bomb blasts in Jaipur. Those of you who have been in this city will notice the cruel precision aimed at killing applied here. The spots that were hit are the busiest places in the old city. This map shows 5 places, but in fact there were 9. 12 minutes before the blast I left Badi Choupar to go to see Radha Govindadevji.

There is an all day curfew in the city, all shops are shut and the streets are deserted. Yesterday I decided to go around the city on my scooter to see what the atmosphere was like. Most of the roads were closed with a lot of police present at every major junction.

Panch Bhatti Circle at MI Road.

My neighborhood - Raja Park; usually this road is full of traffic.

Not knowing what to do with myself in a deserted city, I decided to buy newspapers and check the latest news. As I was driving past the Sawai Man Singh Hospital where most of the bomb blast victims were treated, I decided to stop my scooter and go in. By now, dead people were being removed to the morgue so that the space for those still living could be made. SMS Hospital is the biggest one in Jaipur.

Whole scene had a live coverage.

Here families and friends of the victims were checking the lists posted on the walls saying who was admitted to the hospital. Once could sense tension on the faces of those looking at the wall. I looked up the names - people of all ages and from various parts of Jaipur were admitted. On the evening of the blasts police had to keep the crowd in control here, because families were frantically trying to bring their loved one's in, or were trying to find out if they were in the hospital. Some were looking for the dead.

The "blood bank" was busy with the people willing to donate their blood.

Corridors were made into makeshift wards. As I walked around the hospital on the first floor where the "Day Care Centre" was, I could see various people wounded, lying under drips, with families surrounding their beds. As I walked up, the scene got more gruesome and I didn't dare to take any pictures. There, most of the people were in very bad condition, mostly with limbs missing, full of blood stained bandages. Faces of the victim's relatives expressed enormous suffering too.

As I walked back downstairs, someone was being taken away. Meantime on the corridors in the hospital one of the workers was washing off the blood from the walls.

I dread what may be behind this picture. It's from Badi Choupad bomb blast site. At 6.30pm I spoke with the man who was selling these drums in front of Hawa Mahal... Afterwards he headed towards Badi Choupad...