When the plane touched down Bengaluru international airport on Saturday morning, Ravi Kumar T., a city-based entrepreneur who reached home after nine harrowing days in Sana’a, Yemen, had tears in his eyes. He said, “I never thought I would come back alive.”
After meeting his family, he spoke of his experience of being stranded in the war-hit zone, where he landed on March 25 for business. This was a day before the country went to war.
For the next nine days, he was confined to a guesthouse with 150 other Indians.
Airstrikes, from dusk to dawn, shelled buildings around them, he said.
A big fear was that the Yemen’s Houthi rebels would use them as human shields. There was no question of escape as airports and seaports were sealed, and armed rebels, including minors with AK-47 riffles, roamed around, said Mr. Ravi Kumar.
To add to their anxieties, there was little information from the Indian Embassy.
Power and food had become scarcer, and with limited net connectivity, he said he spoke to his distraught wife in Bengaluru on alternate days.
Now home, despite the ordeal, Mr. Ravi Kumar disagrees with those who say Indians should stay within the country to do business. Everybody’s work cannot be within India and work requires people to go abroad. “Besides, Yemenis respect Indians immensely,” he said.
Another business trip to Yemen? No, he said, adding that he does not want to go outside India till he recovers from this trauma.
