KOCHI: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to the exodus of nearly all Indian students from there. Even as these students fled from the war-torn country and were facing a lot of hardships to come back home, they refused to leave behind their beloved pets. But these students have a sad saga to say regarding the hardships they had to face in their own country when it came to the care, accommodation and transportation of their pets.
According to Arvind Jayakumar, a third-year student at Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, they didn’t face any problem in their journey from Ukraine to New Delhi. “We were transported in an Indian Air Force plane and had been provided the provision to bring along our pets too,” said Aravind who owns a three-month-old Golden Retriever. But all that ease vanished after they reached their home soil.
“We were provided accommodation at the Kerala House. But when we reached there, we were told that the pets weren’t allowed inside the rooms. The animals were housed in the room allotted for the luggage,” he said. According to him, they took turns to be with the animals even as they ran around trying to get a suitable form of transportation that would enable them to travel along with their pets. “The state government had arranged Air Asia flights to transport us to Kerala. However, the company has a strict no-pets on board policy,” he said.
After going through many troubles, the trio managed to obtain tickets on Rajadhani Express by paying around Rs 51,000. “We were told that we could travel only in an AC coach and had to book an entire cabin so as not to cause any trouble to the other passengers,” said Aravind who reached his home at Kaloor in Kochi on Monday.
119 Keralites reach state from Ukraine
T’Puram: Another 119 Keralites, who reached Delhi and Mumbai following their evacuation from war-torn Ukraine under ‘Operation Ganga’, were brought to the state in special flights on Tuesday. With Tuesday’s arrivals, the total number of Malayalis who have reached the state from Ukraine has reached 3,093. According to a Norka official, of the 119 Keralites who reached the state on Tuesday, 107 had departed from Delhi while 12 passengers were from Mumbai.