Back home, Shivani is busy taking calls to help stranded friends

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 2

Even though Shivani, final year MBBS student from Uzhhorod National University, returned home safely today, she is constantly busy taking calls and voice messages from her friends who are still stuck in Ukraine. She has been guiding her fellow mates and giving them tips so that they too can return home.

Going a step further, she has also taken a toll-free number and has got it circulated in various groups of students so that she can help them. “This was the fag end of my sixth year in Ukraine. I am not only aware of the locations and safe exits but also well verse with their language. Many new students do not know which trains to board and how to cross the border. These are some of the reasons which have been delaying their evacuation,” she said at her place in Ramneek Avenue here.

Babita Rani, her mother, said Shivani had been in India for a month’s vacation during her ongoing internship period and went back on January 29. “At that time, we had no idea that a war-like situation would develop in the country,” she said.

Two other Punjab students who returned in the flight that Shivani came back in are her classmate Isha Gandhi of Kapurthala and Maninder of Phillaur.

Maninder has returned from Kyiv where he was a hosteller as a fresher in a management course. “The first attack in Kyiv was made on February 23 and we left the city the next day. We took a friend’s car and moved towards Hungary border. We saw tanks coming from the opposite side. At some places, we also see firing incidents but did not halt our journey and somehow made it on time,” he said. He had gone there on October 13.