“Next thing I knew he was trying to stab me in the chest. I blocked it with my hands and that was how the knife cut off part of my middle finger and the ring finger on my right hand.”
Dhamijaa said he also suffered less severe cuts on his other hand, and “blood was gushing out everywhere”.
“I was yelling for help, and telling him, ‘sorry brother, sorry’, but he just wouldn’t stop,” he said.
“The man’s eyes were red and filled with rage, everything happened so fast, but this 15 seconds or so has totally changed my life.”
Police arrived at the scene moments after the attack, with one police vehicle attending to Dhamijaa while another pursued the attacker’s car, he said.
Dhamijaa was taken to Middlemore Hospital where plastic surgeons reattached his fingers, which he said were dangling by threads of skin.
“I am still in extreme pain, and they told me it would be one and a half years at least before I can regain full use of them,” he said.
“I am a chef, trained in Indian and Italian food. But without my hands, I am useless. How will I work?”
Originally from Delhi, Dhamijaa said he sold everything to move to New Zealand a year ago to plan a better future for his 4-year-old son.
His wife and son arrived just a month ago to join him.