History is the witness of who stands at the receiving end of the war– losing a life, home, family, future, career. If we turn the pages of history, we can reiterate the fact that war is not a solution whatsoever, instead of a mere display of power at the cost of innocent lives.
Since the long withstanding tension between Russia and Ukraine culminated into a full-fledged war, I came across numerous tweets, posts reflecting shocks and disapproval. Many displayed amazement at the eventuality of war in the 21st century. But far away from the headlines and Twitter trends lie the dark reality of power, politics, and people. Here we will talk about people: the ultimate receivers of power and politics.
This decade will be remembered for our hypocritical existence. At one end, the world is striving to save the lives of people relentlessly researching medical and providing vaccination, and on the other hand, witnessing the loss of lives and future in an invasion determined to leave another country in ruins.
Imagine the misery of parents who have sent their only child to study and make their future in a foreign land.
Ansh was one of the lucky few who could reach the Romanian border and is now waiting for his turn to take the flight to India. But amidst his misery and all the chaos he depicted the pain of hundreds of students with him at the border and thousands stuck in different parts of Ukraine. Ansh deciphered his situation by taking us 15 days back when he concluded that anyhow there will be war. He said that all the countries issued the advisory, but the Indian embassy released the advisory very late.
“There was an advisory by the Indian embassy where a link was sent to fill the form first.”
“We were in a very grim situation because the classes were offline so we couldn’t go.” “Only in the last two days the classes were online and then an advisory was released. So if you had money in your pocket, you could go”
Ansh is a student at Ivano-Frankivsk, a city located in Western Ukraine. The part of Ukraine most affected by the war.
“There was a bomb blast”
“Then there were continuous bomb blasts and we decided to evacuate this place anyhow, but there were no flights at the airbase as well. There are 20,000 students from India studying in Ukraine and there are just 3-4 flights that have carried out the evacuation. And we need around 100-200 flights if we go by the regular capacity of the airplanes. There is a major chunk of students stuck amidst the chaos and uncertainty.”
“We were not given a particular place or country border where we had to reach. The embassy just gave us four countries and asked us to reach there. There was no transportation, no arrangements, no security measures.”
“We booked private buses, one private company named “Eurasia Education Link” helped us a lot in our arrangements and movement”
“The situation at the border is also very bad. There are 3000-4000 students, there is no priority list or any list for that matter. The Ukrainian military harassed the students, fired, and sprayed at us. Furthermore, there is no shelter, no arrangement made by the embassy for the students.”
“There is no transparency, you know. The embassy says there are no funds, they say we are saving the funds for an emergency, to which one of the students replied, what will be more of an emergency than a war.”
The Price for homeland
“The airfare skyrocketed, the one-way ticket from here is 20 thousand, but right now it is over 1 lakh and even that is being canceled.” How are we supposed to leave? I have my younger sister studying with me. I can’t leave her here either. I have to find a way for both of us. And even if I reach India in a day or two, what about the students stuck here. There is no certainty of life here right now, Russia can attack anytime.” Bahut dar rehta hai kabhi idhar hoon kabhi udhar.”
