TIRUCHY: When all hope is lost, help comes from unexpected quarters sometimes. A Tamil family from Malaysia that is stuck in Tiruchy found their messiah in a driver. The family of four from Selangor in Malaysia - Alvin Kumar, his wife Revathi, her sister Kavitha and Kavitha’s son Thifaash - arrived in Tiruchy on March 12, on a religious tour.
They visited temples in Tiruchy, Kumbakonam, Vaitheeswarankoil and Madurai and left for Kodaikanal. To their horrors, a day later the government ordered shutdown of all resorts. With nowhere to go, the family returned to Tiruchy and planned to leave earlier than they had planned, on March 19. However, as all flights were grounded due to the pandemic.
This is when, Shakthivel of Palur near Samayapuram stepped up. He was their driver during their tour and he gave the family a roof over their heads. Kumar said, “I have been coming to Tamil Nadu since 2006, once every three years to visit temples. Ever since my first trip, I have been employing Shakthivel’s services. When we had nowhere to go, he took us to his house.” Incidentally, there about 200 stranded Malaysian Tamils staying in various hotels in the city.
On March 21, a flight was operated from Tiruchy to Malaysia. Kumar’s family rushed to airport but as luck would have it, they did not make the flight as 186 other passengers were ahead of them. Again, two flights were operated on March 24, but the family failed to get on the passenger list. Kumar lamented, “I do not know on what basis they selected the passengers as we had booked our flight for March 19. As far as I know, those who booked tickets for April got ahead of us. We have been trying to reach out to our embassy officials but there has been no positive response till now.”
Meanwhile, health department officials pasted a sticker mentioning the names of Kumar’s family on Shakthivel’s house and informed them they had been home quarantined till April 20. As Malaysia is also under lockdown, Kumar, an IT professional, is working from Tiruchy. Meanwhile, there are about 25 Malaysians staying at a private hotel near Chathiram bus stand for the past one week. A teary-eyed Vaani, one of the passengers, said, “I have left my three children in the care of my mother and mother-in-law. They have been video-calling and repeatedly asking when my husband and I would return. I do not know how to comfort them.”
Apart from the Malaysian Tamils, no others are staying in hotels. The hotels are charging them rent.
At one hotel, they are paying only for food but not for rooms. They have promised the hotel management that they would credit it once they get back. However, they had paid some initial amount.
“We do not know how long are we going to stay here and how much the rent would be by then.” Everyone hopes the situation would change for the better, soon.