Indian-origin students abroad grapple with rising uncertainty

Students Looking For Accommodation Amid Travel Restrictions

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai:15.03.2020

Indian students abroad who are being encouraged to move out from universities’ halls of residences are largely looking for accommodation locally and preferring to stay put rather than flying out. Help has come from unexpected quarters and in the time and age of social media, friends, family and even strangers are offering a couch and a meal. But not everyone is lucky. Stuck in cities that are completely locked out, many are homesick and waiting to return.

Residential and travel restrictions imposed across several universities in the US saw unsure Indian origin students grappling with fast-paced changes. Labelling their furniture and moving them to large common storage rooms, returning their keys and suddenly hunting for a space to live in has not been easy on them.

Amidst all that, hope and help has come from Indians in the USA. Ashok Kolla, chairman TEAM Square of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), said, “We have helped 24 students find accommodation after their universities asked them to leave campus. These include students from Ohio, Atlanta and California.” Kolla added that the stranded students had been put up at motels run by Indians free of cost. Also, a few Indian families have come forward to take them home.

A graduate student from Bengaluru, who is currently pursuing a certificate in advance management course to get into an MBA programme at Babson College, Wellesley, Boston, confirmed that international students had been asked to leave campus. “I live outside campus and hence, was not affected.”

Rao Maddukkuri, whose son Akhil is in the third year of his undergraduate course in management sciences engineering at Stanford University, said officials had advised international students to leave, but those who could not were being allowed to stay on.

Kolkata-based Dr Sabyasachi Mitra, whose son studies computer engineering with Maths honours at Purdue University, is very anxious. “My son, Rishi, wanted to return. However, I asked him to stay back. The health infrastructure there would be better geared to fight this outbreak. Coming on a flight and going through airports will make him more risk-prone.”

Delta is temporarily suspending service between JFK and Mumbai from next Tuesday. The last flight from JFK to Mumbai will operate on Saturday (March 14). The last flight from Mumbai to JFK will operate on Monday (March16),” the airline said.

Full report on www.toi.in

STUCK: A student carries a box to her dorm at Harvard University, after the school asked its students not to return to campus after spring break and said it would move to virtual instruction for classes