The blast demolished the front end of the store and a portion of the residence above it, killing all the occupants, a family of three. In a picture that shocked the nation and provoked a presidential remark, the upper portion of a woman’s body was shown among the wreckage, the rest of her body presumably blown away by the explosion. This was the climax of the letter-writing campaign that had become known as the Phantom Affair; or rather, in retrospect, this was the first of its two climaxes. In the weeks following, Ramji would stare at that picture, close up, many times over; the shambles it depicted would seem to him a visitation from the past come to make a mockery of his new life, the second chance he had given himself. But he’d first caught that grisly scene on TV on Saturday night, the day following the bombing, after the president’s comment. The news depressed him. The tragedy of the dead family was real, and poignant enough, though in the scheme of things not an unusual news event for the small screen.
