After 60-day UK exile, now 14 more days 75km off home

VADODARA: Fear of getting infected with coronavirus, staying at the mercy of Good Samaritans, relief of being airlifted home, but the anti-climax of losing luggage. This quite sums up the experience of this woman who flew back to India in the early hours on Thursday.
Itishree Pradhan from Godhra reached Ahmedabad by a special flight from London. While she is much relieved to reach her country, the journey has been a choppy one. Also, she will have to spend two weeks around 75km from her residence in quarantine at a hotel.
Pradhan was in the UK on a dependent visa with her husband. However, he had come to India, but got stranded in Godhra due to lockdown.
Pradhan reached Ahmedabad in the early hours on Thursday. “I was supposed to board a bus from there to Vadodara. I had brought my luggage out of the airport and it was to be loaded in the bus, but this did not happen,” she said. The luggage has been kept at the airport and officials have promised to get it back soon.
For Pradhan and a group of around 50 students, uncertainty began when they booked tickets for India after the official announcement that passengers of international flights could not disembark in India after 1.31am on March 23. While this was true, another advisory issued by the Indian High Commission in London had on March 19 stated that the travel of Indian citizens including Indian students in UK would remain restricted till March 31.
The group was not allowed to board the flight at the Gatwick airport and they reached the High Commission in London seeking help. They were eventually given accommodation in a hotel by the officials. “But after a week this facility was withdrawn. Someone gave us shelter and the community provided us food during the difficul times,” said Pradhan.
Pradhan said that children and those who were aged or pregnant were given priority for travelling to India. “But we requested that we should be also given priority as we were not allowed to go earlier despite having tickets,” said Pradhan. She added that due to this, 62 persons who were not allowed to fly were given priority.