New Delhi: Kirtan Kalathiya, a medical university student in Ukraine, was seen chatting in Gujarati and laughing with four of his friends from his native state soon after they reached Delhi airport following a long journey from Kyiv. Even as they were shooting the breeze close to midnight on Tuesday, standing near a taxi bay, one of them kept looking at the Instagram page of Kyiv Post on his mobile phone to get the latest update on the situation in Ukraine.
From Kharkiv to Chernivtsi ,Indian students and professionals, living in different parts of Ukraine, started arriving in different flights at the Delhi international airport from 11 PM onwards on Tuesday. Most of the students, PTI spoke to soon after their arrival, said they had followed the advisory issued by the Indian Embassy. TV media camerapersons and reporters, virtually swooped on them, the moment they walked out of the terminal exit gates. Kalathiya, 19, and his friends, Nirav Patel and Vineet Patel from Bhavnagar district, and Krish Raj and Priyansh Hudda from Surendranagar district near Ahmedabad, are first year MBBS students at the Bukovinian State Medical University (BSMU) in Chernivtsi, a town in western Ukraine known for its grand architectural buildings.
"We were a bit tense, when we boarded our flight, but felt relaxed after reaching India," Hudda told PTI. Kalathiya, wearing a blue down jacket, joked among his friends to keep the anxiety at bay. "We came safely from Ukraine, but at airport, we were surrounded by media persons as soon as we came out of the exit gate. That added to our anxiety," he said in a lighter vein, as they all shared a laugh.
BSMU is an over 75 years old medical institution, and was established during the World War II. But, war is something, the Indians enrolled in universities in Ukraine, don't want to have on their mind. Anil Rapriya, 22, a fourth-year MBBS student at the Kharkiv National Medical University (KNMU) in Kharkiv city, after landing at Delhi airport, said, "I am happy to be back in my country. There is nothing to panic there. I moved to India as the embassy asked us to leave the country temporarily given the evolving situation in Ukraine," he told PTI.
His family lives in Nangloiin Delhi. Anil's brother, Manish Rapriya, and family members of several other students had waited anxiously at the T3 terminal's arrival lounge, until they arrived home late Tuesday night. Gurgaon-based Ratan Singh waited for his son Shivam Chaudhury, 20, at the airport with a special garland in his hand.
