Three Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat

Omi and I carried the LPG cylinder. We kept it under the sofa blocking the
main door.
'Omi where do we keep the fireworks?" Ish said.
'Top shelf,' Omi said.
Ish came back with boxes of leftover Diwali crackers. We usually burst them
when India won a match. Ish emptied a box of bombs on the cylinder.
He took two bombs and opened the fuse to make it last longer. The crowd
banged at the door. One main door bolt became loose.
'I open, you light and all run up. Clear?' Ish said to Omi.
Omi nodded. Ish climbed on the sofa and tried to get hold of the bolt. It
vibrated under the impact of the mob's jabs.
Omi lit a matchstick and took it to the fuse. As the fuse tip turned orange, Ish
opened the bolt. The sofa would keep the door in place for a few more seconds,
the time we had to save our lives.
'Run,' Ish said as he jumped off the sofa.
We ran up the stairs. I was four steps away from the top when the door came
loose.
'Mother fuckers we won't leave you. Killing your own people,' the mini-leader I
had tried to bribe opened the door. Him and three more men entered the room.
'Hey stop,' they shouted at me as I continued to climb. I looked behind, eight
men had entered the bank.
I was one step from the top when my ears hurt. The explosion rocked the
cupboards on the ground floor as the main door blew away. I think the mini-
leader took the worst hit from the cylinder. The other eight men couldn't have
been much better off.
I didn't know what we were doing. Preventing someone from taking revenge by
attacking them ourselves. I had never seen body parts fly in the air. I didn't know
if any of the rioters remained. I used the two way switch at the top to switch on
the ground floor tube light. Smoke and bits of paper from the old files filled the
room. Ish and Omi came behind me.
'All gone?' Ish said.
The smoke cleared in thirty seconds. A few men lay around the room. I could
not tell if they were injured or dead. The erstwhile main door was now an empty
gap. Mama entered the room with five other people. Maybe he was lucky, or
maybe he had the foresight to send others to open the door first. The five people
ran to the injured in the room. Mama looked up. His eyes met us.