Lady recalls nights of agony, escape

“Everything was normal, although there were some rumours doing rounds, till we heard some blasts nearby and started searching for our flights back’’, Anupama Rajashekharan (pictured), a young HR executive, employed in a private company in Kyiv, said sharing her experience before running away from Ukraine.

She secured an express visa from the Sultanate of Oman through a travel agent in the next few hours and boarded the plane to Turkey. And from there to Abu Dhabi and Muscat, and now she’s with her brother in Ibri.

“They were not usual days prior to the bombings. We were all praying that the idea of an imminent war should drop by the parties involved and life gets back to normal’’, Anupama, who arrived in the Sultanate of Oman on February 20, said while recollecting her story to the Observer.

“There were raids in our hostel, and armed men verified our identity cards and confirmed our nationalities’’, she recalls the nights of agony.

All her possessions, dresses, books, and even the laptop given for servicing had to be abandoned while running for life.

“There are still hundreds of people stuck around our place. We could see many innocent people perplexed not knowing where to go and moving here and there as many were homeless as well’’, adds Anupama.

Reaching out over the phone to some expatriates in Kyiv who were stuck within the four walls of their flats, some of them said they didn’t know when they could move out.

“We are clueless if we can survive for more days. Provisions are fast depleting, and going to the airport to catch any relief flight to the homeland is beyond question as there are armed men guarding the roads’’, Prince, another employee from his besieged flat in Marshala Rokossovs’koho Ave, Kyiv adds.

Fares for the flights that left Kyiv just before the bombings were equivalent to as high as RO 500 and the like but fearing the imminent anarchy, she had to buy the ticket to leave the place.

“Seeing the disasters in front of our eyes, the only prayer is that no more wars should happen on earth as losses and destruction can only lead to depression and damage to humanity’’, prayed Anupama.