Cloth bag slung over his shoulders, Father Sebastian D'Cruz, 64, was in the process of securing a ticket to Allahabad when rediff.com came across him.
He looked a bit harried but otherwise there was nothing to suggest that he was one of the passengers of the Mangalore-Mumbai Matsyagandha Express that had met with an accident on Wednesday morning.
The Allahabad-based pastor escaped unhurt but missed a connecting train from Mumbai's Kurla Terminus. He was on his way home after attending a meeting in Mangalore.
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"I am very afraid," Fr D'Cruz told rediff.com. "After the accident, everything was quiet. Not a sound. Some of the bogies were broken."
He saw around 6-7 dead bodies. "One was that of a woman. There were no children. But there was one body with the leg severed. It was a horrible scene."
Fellow passengers, including some jawans, helped me and others."
He said the engine had fallen into a nullah. "Two bogies were dangling to the left (of the bridge) while two were dangling to the right. We came to know that the driver was fine."
It was his fate that Fr D'Cruz survived. "Sab upar wale ka kaam hai (It is all in the hands of the Lord)."
Asked if he had spoken to his family since the accident, he said, "No one will worry for me. I have no wife or children."
"Please get your (earlier) ticket [to Allahabad] cancelled, fill out a reservation form and get a fresh ticket," the station master of Kurla Terminus told him. "The next train is at 9:45pm. If you have any problem, you can come to me. I will see to it that you get a seat."
