Stuck alone in Chennai for 48 days, Malayali student joins mom in Mangaluru – The New Indian Express

Express News Service

KOCHI: Chennai to Mangaluru is only 700 km, but for 21-year-old Malayali student Anantha Padmanabhan, Chennai seemed to be an isolated place halfway across the globe as he could not join his mother in Mangaluru despite his repeated attempts since lockdown was declared on March 25.
It was only on May 12 that he could finally make it to Mangaluru with the help of a retired CRPF jawan, who drove him up to Hosur in his car.

Getting stuck alone in a new city with no family members around during a crisis of this sort really tested the nerve of Anantha Padmanabhan and he feels that the government should have devised a plan to help the stranded before imposing the complete lockdown on one fine day. “I have been staying alone in a single bedroom apartment in Chennai for my studies and have been fully dependent on restaurants for food. The closure of hotels, public transport and imposition of curfew threw life out of gear. Above all, the fear of rising number of Covid-19 cases in Chennai really frightened me.

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I rang up all my family members seeking support but they couldn’t do any help due to strict enforcement of lockdown. With Tamil Nadu government enforcing lockdown strictly, my friends couldn’t even visit me for days,” Anantha told TNIE from his home at Mangaluru where he is undergoing 14 days mandatory quarantine.  He said even his father Sreekumar K R , who is in Dubai, tried hard to bring him home by coordinating with various agencies. But he couldn’t do much because of various obstacles. It was a few social organisations in Chennai that provided food and other essentials to him.

Though he visited Chennai Corporation office seeking a travel pass either to Kerala or Karnataka, they denied it saying that the pass could be issued only for three reasons – medical emergency, marriage and death of an immediate family member. “It’s not my case alone. Thousands of students from Kerala who were in Chennai had to undergo the same harrowing situation. When I tried for an online pass from Kerala government website, it got hung almost every time due to heavy rush. Finally when I got one, the dates were all messed up due to some software error,” he said adding that he very happy to be home.