Some students are also stuck in hostels run by the social welfare and justice department, which has three hostels in Mumbai City and four in Mumbai Suburban district. (Express Photo by Sahil Walia)

A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on Tuesday extending the lockdown, Mozahid Alam, a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), received a message that his April 15 flight to Patna had been cancelled. For the fourth time, his flight had been cancelled – previously for March 24, March 25 and April 2.

“I video-call my family, tell them I’m fine… But every year, for Shab-e-Barat, I visit my father’s grave. This year, it was on April 8 and I was here,” he said.

The extension of the lockdown has dashed hopes of many students eager to see their families after being stuck in near-empty hostels.

In March, before the nationwide lockdown was announced, IIT-B, TISS and MU, along with charity organisations, social welfare and tribal welfare departments began issuing notices to students to vacate hostels. In the chaos of last-minute ticket bookings, some chose to stay back, hoping to go home a little later. Many had booked tickets for April 15-16.

There are 67 students right now at TISS campus.

From Churachandpur in Manipur, Tawnsuanlal Vale said, “Many students from the Northeast didn’t go back because back home, medical infrastructure is poor. Moreover, people there are struggling for daily meals. It does get lonely here, but we indulge in activities to occupy our minds.”

“You don’t see rats when people are there. But now I wake up to their sounds, sometimes in the middle of night. Right now the campus is crazy empty,” said Rahul Kumar, PhD student at IIT-B.

Hailing from Anini, a small town in Arunachal Pradesh, Kumar couldn’t go home because of blocked roads.“My parents call every morning and evening. It would have been better to have gone home,” he said.

At present, there are 83 students inside IIT-B campus, some foreign exchange students.

Some students are also stuck in hostels run by the social welfare and justice department, which has three hostels in Mumbai City and four in Mumbai Suburban district.

At the Sant Eknath boys hostel in Chembur, nearly 25 students are sustaining themselves on dal chawal.

“We are fed up of dal chawal. We tried to contact some social workers for vegetables, even cooked the vegetables ourselves. But it only lasted two days. Once in a while, we cook chapatis ourselves,” said law student Dadarao Nangare.

When contacted, Samadhan Ingle, assistant commissioner of social welfare department, said, “In all hostels, we have some students staying back. Some are orphan students, while others could not go back. There are mess workers who cook for the students. We are trying to seek permission from the collector in case we can help students go home.”

Eleven students are staying at MU’s JS Hall in Churchgate, who are from Jammu, Northeast and Maharashtra among others. “I see all the students as family and we try to be together while maintaining social distancing,” said MA history student Mohan Gaikwad.

At the Kalina campus, 16 boys have stayed back, whereas eight girls are lodged at Savitribai Phule girls hostel.