As he struggles to move on his bed at the Civil Hospital here, 18-year-old Balaji Jadhav regrets his decision to make a quick buck by opting to work as a labourer while being on a vacation to visit his father in the city.
Jadhav, after appearing for his Class XI Science stream examination at his hometown Aurad in Karnataka's Bidar district, was visiting his father at Mumbra when he met a construction supervisor at the busy Shil Phata traffic intersection who promised him Rs 350 per day for an on-site work.
"My father also works as a bigari (casual labourer) and I took up the offer thinking what would I do sitting home alone when he is away," he told PTI at the hospital.
He was taken to work as a helper to a carpenter at the ill-fated building in Lucky Compound, which was one among the scores of construction sites in the Mumbra-Kausa-Shil Phata stretches. Like many others in the vicinity, this project was also illegal.
Jadhav was on a recently constructed slab on the eighth floor of the building, and was just through with his maiden day's work, when there was a loud sound and within moments, he found himself stuck in the rubble.
He struggles to recollect the moments leading up to the collapse of the compound that took 72 lives at the last count, as he adjusts his fractured hand to make an indicative gesture to show what transpired.
Swelling around both the eyes -- the effect of multiple pieces of rubble passing in -- and multiple injuries on the upper torso make further visual communication difficult when his distraught father chipped in.
"I did not even know that he took up the job at Lucky Compound," says Bapu Jadhav, adding he got a shock when he read the name of his son among the list of the injured on a news channel.
His son's 15-day vacation to have a taste of Mumbai had turned sour. Writhing in pain, Jadhav junior is uncertain if he would be able to rejoin his school when lectures begin for the Class XII, post-vacation on April 20.
When asked as to what he would be doing, he said, "I will be taking up a job just like my father. He is very old and cannot continue doing the same job for long,".
