The small space, just enough to park a goods cart, under a tree in Chandni Chowk’s cycle market, has been lying vacant since Monday night.“Kashmiri yahaan apni rickshaw lagaata tha (Kashmiri used to park his rickshaw here),” 45-year-old Shiv Singh Nagar told The Indian Express. “Kashmiri”, Nagar’s friend Bilal Ahmad Masood (32), on Thursday succumbed to injuries sustained in the blast outside Red Fort on Monday evening.On Friday afternoon, battery-operated goods carts – or “rickshaws” – lined the cycle market, a row of shops selling bicycles and bicycle parts two lanes away from the site of the explosion. Bilal’s cart was destroyed in the blast in which 10 people were killed and 30 injured.Story continues below this adBilal moved to Delhi as a teenager 16 years ago from Ganderbal in Jammu & Kashmir. He was not married, and he stayed alone, making a living by loading, unloading, and ferrying goods in his cart. He parked the cart under a tree at night, and slept in it; all his belongings were in a single bag, his friends at the cycle market said.“I called him (Bilal) around 6.50 that evening to ask where he was. I had sent him to deliver some goods at Kashmere Gate. He said he was at the Red Fort traffic signal,” Nagar said. “And then I heard the explosion, and the ground trembled.”Nagar said he called Bilal again at 7.01 pm, and that he managed to speak with him. “He said that he was injured and that they were taking him to hospital. That was our last conversation,” Nagar said.Nagar said he had been friends with Bilal ever since the latter arrived in Delhi, and that they had worked together ever since. “Hum hospital ke Emergency mein bhi do baar gaye, par usse milne nahi diya. Zindagi bhar laga rahega ki kaash usko ek baar dekh liya hota. (We went to the hospital’s Emergency ward twice, but could not meet him. We will always feel the regret of not being able to see him before he died),” Nagar said.Story continues below this adBilal’s friends came to know of his death after police came to the market on Thursday. “Hum phele maane hi nahin, humne kaha koi aur Bilal hoga. (We did not believe them, we thought it must be some other Bilal,” Nagar said.Bilal’s friends recalled that he would bring back apples and walnuts from his annual visits to Kashmir.“He once also brought ghee and pickles. All this is fresh from Kashmir, he would say,” Nagar said. “He would call his family at night, speak to them on video call. They would ask him to come back to Kashmir, but he would say that he liked staying here,” he added.Bilal’s family had been wanting him to go for a wedding at the home of his older sister, but Bilal was in two minds. “He was working in Raipur for a few months to earn some extra money, and he came back to Delhi before Diwali. I told him to go, and that I would lend him some money if he needed it. But before he could make up his mind, this happened,” Nagar said.Story continues below this adLala Ram (57), who also operates a cart, recalled his banter with Bilal on Monday.“He called out to me from far away and teased me, ‘buzurg aadmi ho, ab toh kaam chhod do’. (You’re an elderly man now, you should stop working.) I could never have imagined that would be the last time I would see him.”Parveen Kumar Arora, who has a shop in the market, said Bilal was liked and trusted. “Everybody knew him, he used to deliver even expensive goods. When it rained, he would take shelter outside our shop,” Arora said.