Shaken and stirred, T and AP medicos recall quake horror

HYDERABAD: “I was neatly arranging my books as I had to appear for my pharmacology viva the next day when all of a sudden at around 10.30 am, I thought my head started spinning. I was in a daze for a few seconds before I realized it was an earthquake. My friends and I immediately rushed out of our rented apartment,” recalls J Vishnu Bharadwaj, a second year MBBS student of College of Medical Sciences (CMS) at Bharatpur in Nepal’s Chitwan district.
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Bharadwaj who arrived in the city on Monday evening from Delhi along with seven others was among the 60 odd medicos from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh stranded in the neighbouring country for the past two days. Fifty-two other medicos are on their way back on the Yeshwantpur-Gorakhpur Express which will arrive in the city on Tuesday evening.
The other seven students who returned included K Sandeep Reddy (second year MBBS student from Karimnagar) and first year students Raghu Palepu (Warangal), Akshay (Hyderabad), Arun (Vizag), Daniel K (Vijaywada), Akash B (Chennai) and Tripathi. The group travelled by train to Delhi from Gorakhpur before taking an Indigo flight to Hyderabad.
Earlier, on Sunday evening, the CMS management had facilitated the return journey of around 260 Indian students. The medicos, most of them from north India, were ferried to Gorakhpur in college buses, from where returned to their respective towns and cities.
But this journey was preceded by hours of anxiety, shared those on their way to Hyderabad. “We did not sleep for the past two days. After the massive earthquake, we braved 22 aftershocks all through Saturday. We were worried as the epicenter at Lamjung was just 60 km away from Bharatpur,” recounted K Sandeep Reddy, a second year medico from Karimnagar as he waited for his Hyderabad-bound Jet Airways flight.
The 52 students travelling by train are scheduled to arrive in the city by 8 pm on Tuesday. They were accommodated in a special compartment organized by the Gorakhpur district administration. The team comprises 33 girls who were lodged in a hostel arranged by the college management.
“There were cracks on the third floor of the hostel building after the earthquake hit. Though the building did not collapse, the girls ran out to safety,” said Sandeep’s father K Bhaskar Reddy, quoting Jyotsna, a second year medico from Trimulgherry. Ever since the disaster, Reddy, a trader from Karimnagar, has been coordinating the movement of all medicos and drawing the attention of authorities in Delhi, Gorakhpur and in the Railways to the needs of these students.