For Akshara Kumar, it was a bittersweet homecoming. The Kanpur girl had travelled all the way to Kharkiv, Ukraine to study to become a doctor. Far away from home, her brother Aarav, who was there with her, was a source of comfort. But when she returned to India fleeing the war, her brother was not by her side.
“My brother and friends are still stuck there. He [Aarav] made me board the train but could not make it himself. He told me ‘you go ahead, I’ll make it somehow’. And I lost his hand in the crowd as the firing started,” Akshara told India Today on her return to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening.
The brother and sister were separated as chaotic scenes played out at the Kharkiv railway station. Right before they were going to board a train, shots were fired and those trying to flee on trains were baton-charged.
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“There was stampede and firing, if the incident had not happened then my brother would have been here with me,” rued the young girl.
While relieved to have escaped the Russian invasion of Ukraine, concern for her brother is weighing heavy on Akshara’s mind. “He will either go to Armenia or Hungary, though I am not sure of that,” she added.
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PERILOUS JOURNEY
Akshara shared her ordeal of being stranded in war-hit Ukraine: stuck in a basement at her college with other Indian students for days on end, the sound of bombs dropping above. Their journey to the Kharkiv railway station was also one full of perils.
“I wanted to reach my parents as soon as possible. The scariest experience was that we were walking and we could listen to the sound of bombardment around us,” she recalled.
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A MOTHER’S PRAYER
Her mother told India Today that she would visit the temple — to offer thanks on Akshara’s behalf and pray for her son’s safe return home.
“I am happy about my daughter’s safe return, but I will be fully content when Aarav is home,” she said.
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