Malayali techie forced to mourn his father’s death from abroad
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the last five years, Ragesh Vijayan had made it a point to be with this father, ailing from Alzheimer’s disease, whenever time would permit. However, as fate would have it, the techie from Thiruvananthapuram could not even perform the last rites of his father aged 72 who breathed his last on April 4. The 38-year-old, who is in Japan, got stranded there due to the global travel ban. Ragesh, who is on site as part of an assignment, had booked return tickets for April 1 to be with his father who was hospitalised. But the trip got cancelled.“I would have been beside him had the flight not got cancelled,” Ragesh said.
When he took up the assignment at Tokyo, never in his wildest dreams did Ragesh imagine this would happen. “My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago and usually gets sick this time of the year. I decided to return home because of his deteriorating health. However, I couldn’t say goodbye to him,” said Ragesh, who has a wife and 7-year-old kid. “My family had to cremate his body within hours of his death. The authorities came to my home and instructed my relatives to cremate the body immediately because of Covid-19,” said Ragesh.
“I am in talks with the Malayali association and the officials working at Indian embassy here. There are rescue flights of Japan Airlines which are bringing stranded citizens to the country and are leaving back empty. I hope to catch one of the rescue flights. I can’t think of continuing here anymore,” said Ragesh.