Venkatesan Vembu

Hong Kong: “I’m tired of living like a refugee.” That anguished statement, posted on the social networking site Facebook by one Indian student in the quake-affected Sichuan province in southwestern China, sums up the weary exhaustion of a group of Indians whose normal lives have been thrown out of gear for over 10 days since the quake.

That student, in Chengdu (some 90 km from the quake’s epicentre), is only one of over 700 Indian students training to be doctors in several universities in Sichuan. And while the saving grace is that they are all safe, they have been forced to sleep out in the open for several nights, despite the intermittent rains, and subjected to repeated safety evacuations in response to the waves of aftershocks.

The Indian embassy in Beijing has been in “constant touch” with the students, says an embassy official.

“Some of the aftershocks may have been unnerving, but they are all safe and accounted for.”

The students themselves did not respond to DNA’s requests to speak to them, but an account of the students’ lives, as reconstructed from their Facebook postings, shows that that a few of them are beginning to see the lighter side of even so grim a situation. “Running around with my quilt and travel kit: it’s QUAKE TIME,” writes another student.

There are also other signs of a semblance of normalcy returning to their lives after the trauma of the first few days. Some of them have been participating in online movie trivia challenges and using other frivolous Facebook applications – such as ‘likeness’ quizzes and exchanging ‘birthday gifts’.

This indicates that they don’t appear to be in life-threatening or overly traumatic situations.

“Their weariness may be understandable, as is their desire to go back home to India and seek a postponement of their exams next month,” says the embassy official.

“But even in the past few days, things have improved, and we are constantly monitoring their well-being.”

There are an estimated 228 Indian students and four Indian teachers at the Luzhou Medical College; 150 students at the West China Medical Centre of Sichuan University in Chengdu; and 45 students at the North Sichuan Medical University in Nanchong (all in Sichuan province).

Overall, there are an estimated 6,000 Indian students training to be doctors in China.

“Those who don’t get admissions in Indian medical schools, but cannot afford the more expensive academic options in the West, come to China,” says a source.

“The quality of the education programme is not all there, but the infrastructural facilities are far superior to what you might see in India. And some of the students are enamoured by such things as airconditioned hostel rooms with TVs and so on.”

Meanwhile, the Indian contribution to the quake relief effort continues apace, with the arrival of three flights bearing tents, blankets, sleeping bags and ready-to-eat packaged meals, the embassy official added.

Source : DNA