Covid Diaries
Reached Home via the Last Flight to India During the First Corona Wave🤧
The covid rescue journey from The United Kingdom
This blog will be in a form of a story, which we experienced during our journey from the United Kingdom to India
It was the 18th of March, 2020. We were already aware of the corona (Covid-19) outbreak in The United Kingdom by then. Although our city, Coventry was not a hotspot, the nearby areas did see a few cases. India, my home country had around 150 cases till then which was pretty low keeping in view the population.
But, since it was an unknown disease with no proper severity predictions, every country was closing its borders to tourists and even natives under extreme conditions.
The previous day, i.e. on the 17th Arkadeep urgently gathered the whole group (the students from Assam) to one of the university rooms and informed us about the closing of Indian Borders on the 18th of March. His brother repeatedly dialed us to inform us of all of the news from India and the urgency. Supriya’s sister, on the other hand, was also taking all initiative to arrange a flight for us.
Since we were nine stuck at the University, it was difficult to get so many seats online. Also, there were other students stuck in different parts of the United Kingdom who were trying similar things from their end.
That’s when our mentor for the program Prakash Sir reached out to us and instructed us to go to the Birmingham Airport to check if our original return flight with KLM on the 24th of March will still operate and if we can reschedule it anyway. We tried online rescheduling but every effort was in vain.
On one hand, we were not getting confirmation of our original flight cancellation, and on the other hand not even getting new flights. We split into two groups, where four of us booked a cab to the airport to talk to the airlines and the rest stayed back to check the other options.
After reaching the airport, we were shocked to see the queue of people boarding flights to their respective home countries that day. We asked Air India(our country airlines) if we had nine tickets and were shocked to have known that each ticket would cost us 1,80,000 INR 🤯, which is around 4 times more than the regular fare.
Tears immediately rolled down my eyes 😂 as I thought we would be stuck forever.
I think it was because I never have stayed away from my home for this long and the feeling that I am not allowed to go home was kinda scary for me at that point.
I still laugh at myself when I think about that day. My friends were laughing at me saying we will swim home don’t worry 😂. Anyways, we didn’t find any information there and so decided to head back home in a cab. A BMW came to pick us up and we on the other hand were laughing at ourselves thinking about the reason we got a ride in a BMW 😆. It was a true mixed emotion moment for us 🙆♀️.
We all nine reached home at around 9 pm and called it a day.
On the morning of the 18th, March Pooja left for buying groceries at around 7 am from our nearby supermarket. We had to keep stocks for the next few days as we heard a rumor that the border is going to reopen on the 24th of March again and we were prepared to leave the UK then.
Immediately after, Supriya’s sister gave a call that there is a flight from Birmingham at 7 pm and also informed our mentor. We immediately booked that flight with our personal funds via a travel agency, which cost us around 60000 INR. The offices were closed in India and we are so grateful to our parents who have transferred the amount somehow to the travel agency by 1 pm.
Here I would like to point out that it was the responsibility of the Government of Assam to help us with the funds as it was a fully sponsored trip by them and most of us were from a middle-class background and had found difficulty transferring the amount in such a short span. The Government still did not approve the refunds to this date.
Anyways, we were told to pack and keep our bags ready and leave for the airport by 4 pm. And yes we didn't have tickets till then.
We literally had four hours to collect all the mess we have done from the last month and put it in our limited luggage. In addition to that, we had certain things on our university desks that needed to be bought back right then. Also, since it was the pre-covid times, there were fewer cabs too.
Pritom and I immediately started walking toward the university. We also had to give some gifts to our supervisors, which we planned to give on the very last day. We took everything and rushed towards the campus.
The campus was as empty as an abandoned place. We also came to know that a professor tested positive on the campus and he was airlifted by a private helicopter. There was just no one.
We quickly cleaned our desks and collected all our belongings. By then even Supriya and Arkadeep joined us. Unfortunately, the professors left the campus and we had to keep the gifts on our desks for them to collect at a later time.
After that four of us bought some University of Warwick merchandise (Hoodies and T-shirts), which we planned to buy long back. Finally, we took the last photograph from the campus and walked back home. On the way back we bought burgers, as we did not have anything that day and also had no time to prepare some meal and an extra bag as we were sure we will not be able to fit our luggage in the bags already there.
Here we would like to thank the shopkeeper (I will add the name of the shop as I recall), who gave us bags of 5 GBP each. It was a relief to us at the last moment.
Immediately after reaching home, we all started packing everything we could in our bags. Pritom, I and Julie also decided to take the quilt we bought there with us back to India 😆.
In a matter of two hours, we packed whatever we could and booked a cab at around 4:30 pm to the Birmingham Airport. Me, Julie, Supriya, and Pritom traveled in one cab and the rest booked another.
We were anxious about if we will be able to board as we till then did not have our tickets in hand. We just prayed and hoped for the best 🤞. Finally, at around 5:30 pm we got our tickets 😪.
Thank god the flight was booked with Air India and we got the extra luggage covered for free. It was around 35 kg luggage per head for us 🤯. Finally, we met our friends too who came to Birmingham from Leeds to board the same flight as us.
Unfortunately, two of our colleagues had to stay back for unavailability of flight seats as well as difficulty reaching the airport on time. They reached safely after another month of stay in the United Kingdom.
We are so happy to board the flight finally and at the same time curious about why the seats were shown full when half of our flight was empty. But all we could do then was to hope that our friends reach home fit and safe.
We were given a form on the flight to fill up according to the country-wise covid guidelines.
We landed at around 10 am at the Delhi Airport. We were the second last flight to be allowed to enter India.
Since it was already 19th March, the officials were skeptical to allow us inside India. We stood in queues for around 3–4 hours. It was absolute chaos and mismanagement at the Airport. People from the UK were not just allowed anywhere. There were senior citizens standing in queues for the entire time all exhausted.
We were already drained after the 9-hour long flight along with the pre-flight rush and the chaos in the Delhi Airport just left us totally worn out. We were also given a government quarantine in a Delhi-based quarantine center which all of us were really worried about. But eventually, after 7 long hours of checks, where we were continuously standing in queues dragging our extremely heavy luggage, we were let out of the airport.
At the last checkpoint, we were checked for covid symptoms and given a food packet containing some snacks.
Ahh…😪 Finally, we were out of the Airport.
Now the next big question was How to reach Assam from here?
We had our flights booked on the 24th of March and the flights at that time were costing us around 20,000 INR, which was around 4–5 times the original cost. Already we were running over budget and also we were four, who decided to travel together at least till Guwahati.
We enquired about the flight and got one on the 22nd of March (all four of us together i.e. Me, Julie, Arkadeep, and Pritom). Manmeet joined us for a day as he had a flight the very next day. The rest of the group also got separated into their respective flight schedules.
Arkadeep’s brother helped us book a hotel for all five of us within 5 km of the Airport. We checked in at around 8 pm. It was the Olive Hotel of Delhi. We were given home quarantine stamps in our hands even after checking for corona due to safety measures. We informed the authorities about our flight after three days and they allowed us to the hotel as nothing seemed wrong. They also checked our passports before letting us in.
However, after having our dinner, we were told to leave the hotel right then (It was around 11.30 pm), owing to the fact that we came from the UK.
The worry was normal, but the fact that the hotel authorities lost the sense of humanity by kicking the team out (which had two girls too) at midnight in the streets of Delhi.
Here I remember an incident from Coventry that needs attention and comparison, especially when in India where the guest is considered equivalent to God. Pritom had to change his room to a different residence in the last week of stay as his contract in the previous house got over. The new landlord was an old lady “Mauli” who gave him a room at her house for a week and they fixed the rent and the moving date mutually. However, covid cases were rising at that time, and ‘Mauli’s’ health was not well (she recovered from a coma shortly). Even after her condition, she welcomed Pritom to her house owing to the fact that she did promise him and he had nowhere to go. The only restrictions were he was instructed to sanitize each time he moved out. I was stunned to see her loyalty and hospitality towards the guests, keeping in view her health.
The authorities from the hotel, however, showed no mercy and threatened us to call the police, if we did not leave.
But we were not dumbs standing either 😒?? Right??
One of our boys himself called the police and told us about our plight. We also called our mentor Prakash Sir who informed the government representatives of Assam, who eventually warned the authorities of the hotel to not force us to leave in the middle of the night.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police arrived in time and allowed us to stay for that night and arrange some other place for the next day. Finally, after a lot of arguments, we were allowed to sleep for the night without coming out or using the lift. We called it a day at around 2 am.
It was certainly the longest and most daunting day of my life.
The next morning we woke up early, dragged our luggage down and people were staring and talking about us 🤣 (as the UK returned people). The authorities were not even ready to issue us the refund (for the three days) but gave us half the money when this time we threatened about informing the government officials and media. Prakash Sir arranged two rooms for us in the Assam House, Delhi for the next two days.
Assam House had just a few formalities like submitting our ID cards and proof of our parents or relatives providing service to the Assam Government. We were relaxed to be within our own people and pleased to receive such a nice welcome after so many chaotic moments of the last three days.
There was a nice Assamese Restaurant inside the Assam House, which served us nice warm Assamese Thali (Traditional Assamese Platter). But since it was covid times, there was a scarcity of supplies from Assam, hence sometimes we even ordered food from outside.
To be relaxed, the four of us also watched late-night movies together to pass our time. There were numerous calls to us by our friends and family during those days to ask about our safety and well-being.
We also played UNO for hours during those two days.
And it was the 22nd of March.
That day was declared “Janata Curfew” by the Indian Government from 5 am to 7 pm and hence we left the hotel at around 3:30 am. We were in the last stage of struggle 🥲. We reached the airport at around 4:45 am for our flight which was scheduled at 4:30 pm 😖.
We were allowed in on request and we literally waited for 10 long hours loitering all around the Airport and playing UNO for hours.
We were tired but equally excited to reach home.
As already mentioned we were the last second flight allowed to land in India after which the International Departures were closed completely.
At around 7 pm, we reached Guwahati Airport, where I and Julie had our residences. Pritom and Arkadeep had their Paying Guest rooms near our college campus as well. My mother sent the dinner for the two boys as we were already aware that they might not be welcoming outside the room even for dinner. The next day both Arkadeep and Pritom left for their respective hometowns which were another 300 km away 🤧.
Even in our societies, we were looked at as zombies 👻 with numerous calls from the health department, college authorities, and also the District commissioner's office asking about our well-being and health. It was irritating to answer so many calls but also understandable as it was a new outbreak and Assam till then had 0 cases. We were happy that we did not face any Delhi Hotel-like issue, rather a lot of care and well wishes 🤗 in our home town.
By god’s grace, none of us caught covid on the journey but as a precautionary measure all of us self home quarantined ourselves for 14 days 🤍.
It was truly a lifetime learning experience, which I felt is totally worth documenting ✍️. It helped me be a more mature version of myself.
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