Pune: 64-year-old Woody Gutzeit wept silently standing at the
barricades that separated the cordoned off German bakery which
he had lovingly started in 1988.
He spent some time near the
charred remains of the bombed bakery and was "emotionally
shattered" to see the site.
Accompanied by bakery`s manager Ram Gopal Karkee, Gutzeit
visited the place on Wednesday.
Karkee said "Gutzeit cried. What pained him more was the
loss of lives the terror attack had claimed."
He quoted Gutzeit as saying "If at all they wanted to
blow up the bakery, they could have done it at night when
there was nobody inside. My heart goes out to the customers
for whom it was such a dear place".
Gutzeit had handed over the popular joint --- frequented
by foreigners staying in the nearby Osho Ashram--- to
Dnyaneshwar Kharose in 1996 as he left Pune for health
reasons.
"He found pollution levels in Pune suffocating and
decided to leave the city and went to Himachal Pradesh where
he started a health food company," Karkee said.
Smita, the widow of Dnyaneshwar Kharose, said, "Woody
did not meet me during his stay and we have not been in touch
with him for the last eleven years since he left Pune."
PTI
