Bihar,INDIA / North Carolina / Washington, U.S.A. :
U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues Uzra Zeya. File | Photo Credit: AFP
U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues Uzra Zeya will travel to India and Nepal this week to deepen cooperation on human rights and democratic governance goals with the two nations, the State Department has announced.
Ms. Zeya, the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights and an India-American, is expected to visit Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh during her visit to India.
Dharamsala is home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-exile.
“Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights and U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Uzra Ms. Zeya will travel May 17–22 to India and Nepal to deepen cooperation on human rights and democratic governance goals, and to advance humanitarian priorities,” the State Department said on May 16.
“She will also discuss partnering with India and Nepal during this Year of Action for the Summit for Democracy. The delegation will include U.S.AID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia Anjali Kaur,” it added.
It will be the first high-level contact between the U.S. and the Tibetan leadership after Joe Biden became President in January last year.
In New Delhi, people familiar with the development said last month that Ms. Zeya will hold talks with the Dalai Lama and other senior leaders of the Tibetan Government in exile in Dharamsala, signalling the Biden administration’s commitment to the Tibetan cause.
Last month, Tibetan exile leader Penpa Tsering paid a visit to Washington D.C. and met Ms. Zeya. Tsering — the elected head of Tibet’s India-based exile Government the Central Tibetan Administration — had also met House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders.
China considers the 14th Dalai Lama as a political exile who has attempted to split Tibet from China under the guise of religion.
According to the people cited above, key issues relating to the Tibetan cause are likely to figure in the talks.
As the U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, Ms. Zeya has been coordinating the Biden administration’s policies, programmes and projects relating to the Tibetan cause.
Ms. Zeya was sworn-in as the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on July 14 last year.
On December 20, she was concurrently appointed as the U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues.
The U.S. has been consistently supporting the Tibetan cause notwithstanding China’s strong objection.
In 2020, the U.S. came out with legislation reaffirming the absolute right of Tibetan people to choose a successor to the Dalai Lama and the preservation of Tibet’s environment.
After the U.S. Congress passed the legislation, China had accused Washington of meddling in its internal affairs.
China has been insisting that the selection of the next Dalai Lama has to be decided within Chinese territory and that it has to have a say in the matter.
The issue of a successor to the 14th Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in Dharamsala since 1959, gained traction as he turned 86 in July last year.
Mr. Blinken had met a representative of the Dalai Lama during his visit to New Delhi last year.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> International / by PTI / Washington, May 17th, 2022
Shafakath Hussain from Mangaluru was unanimously elected as the president of the HIF Qatar unit here on Friday. The election was held at the annual general body meeting of the forum at Doha.
Shahim Mohammed was elected as general secretary and Suhaib Ahmed as treasurer of the forum.
HIF outgoing president Rizwan Ahmed presided over the meeting and welcomed the gathering.
General Secretary Shahim Mohammed gave power point presentation of work done by forum in past 2 years and gave details about work done during the pandemic period.
Leaders of various organisations attended the meeting that was compered by Suhaib Ahmed.
Dr Zainul Aabideen, with his patient, a 5-year-old Ugandan girl.
Abu Dhabi/Thiruvananthapuram :
A Malayali doctor in Abu Dhabi wrote himself into record books when he performed the first pediatric stem cell bone marrow transplant in the UAE.
Dr Zainul Aabideen, a native of Kannur in Kerala, presently Head of the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Burjeel Medical City successfully performed the advanced allogeneic procedure on a five-year-old girl from Uganda with sickle cell disease.
Billed as the first such surgery done in the UAE, the patient’s 10-year-old sister donated her bone marrow for the transplant treatment at Burjeel Medical City, a flagship hospital of VPS Healthcare.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder, which results in an abnormality in the hemoglobin found in red blood cells, causing them to become sickle-shaped and leading to several complications including anemia, swelling in the hands and feet, frequent pain, acute chest syndrome, and sometimes stroke.
Prior to the treatment, the child has been regularly admitted to the hospital due to complications arising from her disease since birth.
“As this was a life-threatening condition, the only curative option was bone marrow transplantation. Before this procedure, the patient suffered a lot. The entire care team here at the hospital and the child’s parents are delighted that the transplant will relieve this pain from her life,” said Zainul Aabideen, who headed a team of highly specialised doctors, including a pediatric intensive care team, for the procedure.
The patient has responded well to the treatment and will be discharged in a few days after a five-week stay at the hospital.
Earlier, pediatric patients in the UAE who had to undergo allogeneic stem cell bone marrow transplants travelled to the US, the UK, India, and other European countries.
Zainul Aabideen, completed his MBBS from Calicut University in Kerala and a post-graduate degree in Pediatrics from the University of Mumbai.
He then moved to the United Kingdom to specialise and undertake further training in pediatric hematology, pediatric oncology, and pediatric bone marrow transplantation in various hospitals in the UK.
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz / Home> Health / by awazthevoice.in / April 20th, 2022
Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, Chairman and Managing Director of VPS Healthcare Group, has announced a donation of AED1 million to the 1 Billion Meals initiative, the largest of its kind in the region, which aims to assist and provide sustainable food support to the underprivileged and most needy groups in 50 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the world – in particular children, refugees, displaced persons, and victims of disasters and crises.
The 1 Billion Meals initiative, organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI), provides food support in coordination with the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP), the Food Banking Regional Network (FBRN), the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment (MBRCH), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UAE Food Bank, as well as a number of local charity and humanitarian organisations in beneficiary countries.
Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil said: “We are honoured to contribute to the 1 Billion Meals initiative organised by MBRGI to provide aid and relief to those undernourished, which supports the global battle against hunger and represents the values of the UAE and its wise leadership in giving and expanding the scope of humanitarian work. This is especially true given the escalation of the global hunger crisis and the increase in the number of people affected by it, especially children, refugees, displaced persons, and victims of disasters and crises.”
The initiative, organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI), is a continuation of last year’s 100 Million Meals campaign, which ended up distributing 220 million meals, prompting the new goal of one billion meals.
Donors can contribute to the 1 Billion Meals initiative through the following donation channels – the campaign’s official website: www.1billionmeals.ae; bank transfer to the campaign’s account at Emirates NBD, number: AE300260001015333439802.
Donors can also opt to donate AED1 a day through a monthly subscription by sending “Meal” or “وجبة” via SMS to 1020 on the du network or 1110 on the Etisalat network.
Donations can also be made through campaign’s call centre via a toll-free number 8009999.
Jushna Shahin’s passion for the sport made her achieve the unthinkable.
Jushna at the conference room Spain. | Picture by arrangement
Kerala :
Jushna Shahin’s earliest memories are of watching football matches on TV with her family in Kerala’s Mangattuparamb village.
As a die-hard Lionel Messi fan, Shahin got her chance to do her bit for the game in 2009 when she was selected as one among the 70 students in JNU for the language assistant program in Spain by the Ministry of Education, Spain. “In our village, girls rarely went outside of their homes, other than going to school etc,” Shahin, a teaching assistant and football reporter in Spain, told TwoCircles.net. “Girls going out to play was out of the question, and that put an end to my dream of playing the sport.”
The Kendriya Vidyalaya high school where she studied encouraged sports, but Shahin was not comfortable with the usual sports uniform of shorts and t-shirt.
This did not keep the girl away from football. “I spent my time learning about the sport, and its laws and rules,” she said.
Love for Spanish and Messi Shahin said she wanted to study Spanish when she was in 10th grade so that she could talk to Messi.“I don’t know if it will materialize or not but I will make efforts,” she said.
In 2019 when she got her first salary working in Spain, Shain bought tickets for the UEFA Champions League in Barcelona to see her sports hero play live. “It was unreal and amazing,” she said.
The following day, she went over to the Barcelona club’s office and handed over a hand- letter meant for Messi, hoping that he would reply one day.
Jushna Shahin on a visit to a Vine Cathedral with her students at the IES Santa Isabel de Hungria, Spain. | Picture by arrangement
Last year when Messi moved to the Paris Saint Germain (PSJ) football club in France, Shahin flew to Paris and witnessed the team getting trained. “My heart-throbbing moment was when I watched Messi getting trained,” she said.
While in 11th grade, Shahin attended a camp organized by students of central universities to help those interested to pursue studies outside Kerala. Contacts she made from the camp helped her for the entrance exams. “Even after I cleared the exams, my parents were not convinced about pursuing Spanish as a graduation course. However, they gave in to my wishes,” she said.
In September 2019, Shahin traveled to Spain on her first international trip.
After landing in Spain she found that the Spanish she had learned from textbooks was not the same as spoken by people in Spain. “It was a challenge. Also, the other Indian student’s who had been selected were all placed in different cities of Spain. To travel to a new country was exciting but I felt tense and insecure initially,” she said.
Love for sports writing In 2014, when Shahin was at JNU, she started writing journalistic pieces for the Companion magazine. She would write short reports about the matches she watched. Her interest in sports writing led her to report for The Footy Times , which is an online magazine devoted to publishing football journalism. She started reporting for the magazine during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and has been writing for it since. She has also reported for Malayalam news channel MediaOne and online news website MaktoobMedia.
Shahin recalled two events as the most exciting during her work as a football reporter. In 2021 when the stadiums were closed to the public amid a global pandemic, she was one of the few media persons with accreditation pass reporting the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey in Spain. “I was seven months pregnant at the time,” she said
In February 2022, she got accreditation from the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) Football Club to report the UEFA Champions League round 16 in Paris. She also attended a press conference at the home stadium of PSG club where hers was one among the ten questions asked to Karim Benzema (Real Madrid captain). “Now that stadiums are open for the public, I don’t think I will get the chance to go in with the media persons alone to watch a match in a closed stadium. That makes my reporting during the last year very special,” Shahin said.
Jushna with her husband Awad and daughter Eva. | Picture by arrangement
Having been called crazy for her dreams and passion, Shahin shrugs it off and said, “What’s important and special for you might be very silly for the other person. It’s better not to see and look at your dreams in other people’s frameworks. Create your own dream and respect it, and be confident. Instead of just dreaming it, try to work on it. The only thing that matters is whether you are happy with it or not,” she added.
Shahin’s parents had seen her love for football only as a childhood interest and never knew she would pursue a career related to the game.
“More than her craze for football through Messi, I am happy that she is in the field of football journalism,” said her father CKA Jabbar, veteran journalist and associate editor of Malayalam news portal kvartha.com. “Love for football and writing have been in her since childhood, and she worked hard to follow her dream,” said her mother, Nazila CH, working in the Animal Husbandry Department under the Government of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.
Shahin now lives with her husband, Awad Ahmad, and eight 8-months-old daughter in the city of Vigo in north-western Spain.
Najiya O is a freelance journalist based in Calicut, Kerala. She tweets at @najiyao
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by Najiya O, TwoCircles.net / March 26th, 2022
Aurangabad, MAHARASHTRA /Sheffield, South Yorkshire, U.K.
Sabahat Khan who is pursuing her post-graduation in public health, won with more than 2,500 votes out of a total of 6,900 votes.
“People saw me as a person and my potential to represent them as a student leader, not my attire. And that’s most important, said Sabahat. (Source: Facebook/Sabahat Khan)
Sabahat Khan, a hijab-wearing woman who is from Aurangabad, has been elected president of the students’ union of Sheffield Hallam University in UK.
Khan, who is pursuing her post-graduation in public health, won with more than 2,500 votes out of a total of 6,900 votes.
“People saw me as a person and my potential to represent them as a student leader, not my attire. And that’s most important,” said Sabahat.
“I am proud of who I am and will do everything in my control to empower all those who wear hijab. I come from Aurangabad, but I had ideas and see where they have taken me. No stereotyping has stopped me and it should not stop anybody. There is a lot more to me than what I wear. Instead let’s focus on points that are more important,” said Sabahat, who did her BSc from Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University.
Sabahat said her work as international students’ officer (ISO) during the pandemic has helped her connect with international students from all backgrounds.
But she also insists on pointing to the inclusive and supportive culture of the society at Sheffield Hallam University. “Irrespective of gender, ethnicity and religion, everybody deserves the same treatment,” said Sabahat.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Mumbai / by Pallavi Smart, Mumbai / March 24th, 2022
Powerlifter Gulshan Banu Kazi has not only made her native Udupi, India proud but also Dubai proud by securing a world record among the master category athletes in the Professional Raw Organisations Push-Pull Championship 2022, a national level event held in Bengaluru recently.
This sporting event held at Onyx Fitness was one of the most popular internationally sanctioned national powerlifting championships, consisting of three main events -Bench Press, Deadlifts and Push-Pull.
Record holder Gulshan Banu Kazi is a 43-year-old mother of three, working six days a week at a corporate office in Dubai.
A native of Udupi, she is from Udupi and an alumnus of St Cecily’s and PPC College here .
She is a competitive Powerlifter. Powerlifting is a form of competitive weightlifting in which the contestants attempt three types of lifts in a set sequence, squat, bench press, and deadlift.
Gulshan started powerlifting training in the year 2019.
The training is tough. She trains at least four times a week for about 90 minutes each time and keeps a watch on her nutrition intake and sleep pattern.
She has been participating in a powerlifting competition in UAE and did well there. One of her latest has been the Pro-League National Championship-2022 where she hit five personal records and registered a World Record in Deadlifts (U82.5kg Masters and Open Category) by pulling 180 kgs. She becomes the first woman of India in her age and her weight category to pull off this deadlift.
Last April, she participated in the WPC National Powerlifting Championship securing four gold medals in Bengaluru. Gulshan Kazi won the Best Lifter Award in the Masters’ category.
Gulshan used to be above 100 kgs till 2016 when she suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Resistance training and tracking her food intake enabled her to start losing weight and gaining muscle. Soon after, she was introduced to powerlifting and has been consistent at it ever since.
She is grateful to Raju Pal, her first coach who introduced her to powerlifting and taught her all the basics.
Now she is training under Mohammad Azmat who is a multiple-time national and international medalist in powerlifting, having won medals for India in different federations. He has been coaching her since 2020.
Gulshan Kazi is looking forward to her representation at World Championships and working hard to make India proud.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Middle East / by Daijiworld Media Network – DRD / March 22nd, 2022
Amin Jaffer in his library dining room, standing in front of Yuntao Zhang’s painting of Cellini’s Medusa | Photo Credit: Architectural Digest / Antonio Martinelli
The Rwanda-born Indian curator, who has made the French capital his home, on the Al Thani collection’s first museum, his new book, and the importance of private collections
Writer, curator, collaborator, colonial furniture specialist: Amin Jaffer wears his titles effortlessly. And in the last couple of years, he’s added another one — that of Paris denizen — after he uprooted his English life of 25 years to move into a hôtel particulier (a grand townhouse) on Quai Voltaire along the Seine.
The move made sense. An “éminence grise of the international art world”, as an Architectural Digest article calls him (Jaffer is on the cover of the magazine’s 10th anniversary issue this month), he was “spending a lot of time in Venice, and the commute to London was becoming taxing”. But more importantly, his newest project, a private museum for the Al Thani Collection, is in the city, at Place de la Concorde’s Hôtel de la Marine.
“Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani was looking for a more permanent place to house the treasures of his collection,” says Jaffer, recalling how at the time, the French government body Centre des Monuments Nationaux was thinking of converting the former storage space for royal tapestries at the Hôtel — a four-year, €132 million restoration project. “They proposed that the Al Thani Collection could exhibit its masterpieces there.” With a 20-year agreement in place, acquiring a Parisian pin code thus gave him a twofold advantage, both with work and keeping up his continental way of life. (The last few weeks alone have seen Jaffer travel to Seville and Carmona in Spain and Parma and Venice in Italy.)
The Al Thani Collection at Hôtel de la Marine | Photo Credit: Marc Domage
Polaroid and a passion for art
The view of the Louvre from his third floor flat definitely tipped the scales in its favour. (The photos he shares on his Instagram, @aminjaffer_curator, are proof enough.) And the fact that Vivant Denon, the first director of the museum, had once been a resident in the 17th century building. Moreover, as he explains in an email that he squeezes in between flights, he’s always had a special connection with the Louvre. As a six-year-old, he had visited the museum with his mum, spending an entire day exploring its rooms, a Polaroid camera clutched tightly in his hands. He still has the photographs. “The adrenalin rush of seeing a great work of art inspired me then — as it does now,” he says, adding how by the time he turned 10 he had visited most of the major museums in Europe. “Other seminal moments include an early visit to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and a trip to Rome to see the Vatican collections.”
The courtyard at L’Hôtel de Beuvron with its Rococo fountain | Photo Credit: @aminjaffer_curato
But he nearly missed his calling. Born into an Indian business family in Kigali, Rwanda, a career in art wasn’t an option growing up. His subjects in university were economics and commerce! That is, until he chose the history of French opera and French Renaissance châteaux as his first year electives and reignited his love affair with the arts.
Today, Jaffer, who is in his early 50s, is not only the chief curator of the Al Thani Collection, but also works with leading museums around the world in a “curatorial role, focussed on public projects, exhibition programming and producing catalogues”. His resume includes long stints at the V&A Museum in London as curator and as the International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s.
Amin Jaffer in his home office, sitting in front of a triptych by Reza Aramesh | Photo Credit: Architectural Digest / Antonio Martinelli
The perks of a private collection
“Born in central Africa, educated in Europe and America, I do feel something of a hybrid and I am drawn by works of art that are born from the encounter of two — or more — civilisations,” says Jaffer, who has recently “been fascinated by the fusion of Spanish and Amerindian culture, particularly in the domain of painting”. This ties in beautifully with the Al Thani Collection and its catalogue of more than 5,000 works of art drawn from across world civilisations.
It makes us wonder, how important are such private collections in the art world? “Pioneer collectors have vision and resources that compliment the public art offering,” he says, explaining how such collections play a significant role in the programming of national institutions. “Recent examples in Paris [besides the Al Thani Collection] includes the Bourse de Commerce and the Fondation Louis Vuitton. In India, Kiran Nadar has developed a programme of exhibitions around her collection that makes an essential contribution to the art scene,” adds the Indian art expert who played a key part in launching Christie’s first auction in Mumbai in 2013.
At Hôtel de la Marine | Photo Credit: Marc Domage
On board with digital
Jaffer’s personal collection is equally varied. A triptych by Iranian photographer Raza Aramesh, of Afghan refugees sitting in the Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, takes pride of place in his home office, while a painting of Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini’s Medusa by Chinese contemporary artist Yuntao Zhang hangs in the library dining room. Elsewhere, Qing period armchairs, Louis XVI commodes, and Bouke De Vries’ Memory Jars are tucked into corners and under tables. “My most recent passions are French 18th century silver and hardstones from late Antiquity, especially objects in porphyry. I am learning more about Symbolist painting, too,” he says.
His days of confinement (as the French called the lockdown) helped broaden his base. When not watching life on the river, he was visiting digital museums and “researching parallel institutions” around the world. “What’s certain,” he says, “is that technology will play a greater role in the way we enjoy works of art — whether through the presence of more immersive, digitally-led exhibitions [such as the RMN Grand Palais’ immersive Venice show opening in autumn] or the sharing of information about works of art through digital platforms [like the one for the Palazzo Pilotta collection in Parma, which he experienced last weekend].” Does this mean he’s also on board with NFTs? “Of course, the phenomenon interests me,” he says, “but I do not yet have sufficient expertise to comment on anything in this new domain.”
The Al Thani Collection | Photo Credit: Marc Domage
Left Bank to the Concorde
For now, he’s back at his home at L’Hôtel de Beuvron, listening to Wagner and Mahler, and updating his Instagram. V&A’s new exhibition, Fashioning masculinities — on the male dress and its influences — has caught his eye, though he admits his personal wardrobe is rather formulaic. Tailored clothes in a limited palette of colours is the ‘uniform’, accented by pocket squares and ties that reflect the season or his mood. “Cufflinks are a weakness,” he shares, “and the best ones are by [Indian jeweller] Viren Bhagat, without doubt.”
Even as Jaffer immerses himself in life on the Left Bank, work at the museum is keeping up its momentum. “Some substantial pieces have been added to the collection in the past two years, which reflect the diversity of interests [of Sheikh Al Thani]. These will be shared with the public through displays at the Hôtel de la Marine,” he concludes.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Surya Praphulla Kumar / March 19th, 2022
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru | Photo Credit: The Hindu
The lab has been set up to build cutting edge AI products in the healthcare domain, and bridge the gap between clinical medicine and technology by training healthcare professionals in AI
To understand disease patterns and improve treatment outcomes using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Aster CMI Hospital has joined hands with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) to launch an AI lab.
The lab has been set up to build cutting edge AI products in the healthcare domain, and bridge the gap between clinical medicine and technology by training healthcare professionals in AI.
The lab was launched by Azad Moopen, founder Chairman and Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare; Lokesh B., Consultant Neurology at the hospital; and Phaneendra K Yalavarthy, Professor of Medical Imaging, Department of Computational and Data Sciences, IISc.
Aster CMI will work with Prof. Phaneendra K Yalavarthy and his team on ‘Development of Deep Learning Methods for Automated Tracking and Segmentation of Nerves in Ultrasound Images’.
Sriram Ganapathy, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IISc. has been collaborating on ‘Automatic Acute Stroke Symptom Detection Using Mobile Health Technologies’ and also on audio analytics in neurological disorders. Aster CMI believes that these initial projects have a direct impact on the current clinical practice in neurosciences.
At the launch, Dr Moopen said, “With the use of AI, doctors and medical providers will now be able to deliver more accurate diagnosis in the fastest possible time, which can aid the treatment journey. Also, AI would be a big leap towards predictive and proactive data analytics, which will improve preventive care recommendations for patients. We are glad to partner with IISc.”
Prof. Phaneendra K Yalavarthy, who has been instrumental in setting up the lab by providing the computational infrastructure and expertise, said, “AI-powered medical technologies have been rapidly evolving and have become powerful adjunct tools in clinical practice. The broad spectrum of digital medicine, especially to enable the 4P model of medicine (Predictive, Preventive, Personalised, and Participatory) involves natural collaboration between academic institutions and medical institutions.”
He said this artificial intelligence lab is a collaborative effort to develop these AI technologies in the hospital settings such that the translation to clinic will be seamless. “The initial focus of this collaborative lab will be in neurology and will later be expanded to other clinical specialities. We are thankful to Aster CMI for providing space to establish this lab in their hospital to enable co-development of some of these AI technologies for healthcare. This collaborative lab will enable the development of highly impactful research and technologies with a focus on translation to the bedside,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by The Hindu Bureau / Bengaluru – March 19th, 2022
Indian students who are in Kyiv appeal for their evacuation.
Hyderabad:
Cook food in the confines of house in the morning and take refuge in the nearby bunkers all through the day. This has become routine for several Telugu students who are caught in the war-torn Ukraine for the past a few days. Worst is the situation for students who are staying in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, which has been witnessing heavy bombardment from the Russian forces.
“On February 23 at 3.30 am, we heard the first heavy explosion nearby our house that was deafening. The bombing was followed thereafter. Last night, an oil factory was bombed and fire could be seen from far of places. We are really scared for our lives. We are cooking in the house and staying in bunker,” says Sai Naik, a Warangal native who is staying in Kyiv with seven other students.
As the war-torn Ukraine announced martial law which includes curfew, all establishments have shut their shops. While some students had managed to stock-up, but needless to say, they do not last long.
“We bought groceries and other edibles for five days and we are already into the fourth day the food stock for one-day left. We have no idea what we will do now as all stores are closed since February 24.|
There is a shortage of water as well,” said Naik, who is a student of Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv.
Another student from Hyderabad, Gulam Ahmed Mohiuddin Salman who is currently taking shelter in Kyiv Medical University hostel said there were no responses from the Indian Embassy officials regarding their evacuation.
“There are 200 Indian students presently in the hostel basement. We are running short of groceries and other provisions. Given the situation with no transportation facility, it is impossible for us to travel to the Ukraine border which is 800 kms away from the hostel,” Salman said.
Naik, Salman and several other Indian students have made desperate appeals to the Indian government to at least transport them to the nearest border post.
Shoot at sight orders
“Shoot at sight orders was issued by the Ukraine government, so we cannot move out. We want the Indian government to help us reach the Ukraine border so that we can board a flight from neighbouring country,” Naik appealed.
source: http://www.telanganatoday.com / Telangana Today / Home / by Yuvraj Akula / February 27th, 2022
