Keralites in West Asia share their anxiety

Arun Kumar, a 46-year-old from Thrikkakara who runs a business in Qatar, was out in a supermarket on Monday evening when he heard an unusual sound, which he chose to ignore at first.

A few minutes later, he heard a similar sound, deafening this time, while he was opening his apartment in the residential area of Ain Khalid around 7 p.m. That was when he cast his eyes skywards and saw the ‘fireworks,’ which he, initially, had no clue about.

“What appeared as fireballs were colliding with each other almost right over my apartment,” Mr. Kumar recollected. He rushed inside and switched on the television. That’s when he learned about the Iranian missile attack on the US military base in Qatar, and then came the declaration of the closure of Qatar airspace.

“There were no prior alerts, and the attack continued intermittently for around 45 minutes. There wasn’t much panic on the ground, though, as people continued to move around. It was a surreal sight, though,” he said.

This was followed by a flurry of calls from his anxious family back home. He was planning to return home by the end of this month. Mr. Kumar is now worried about whether the airspace will remain open and the availability of tickets, considering the school vacation in Qatar.

About the same time, nearly 500 km away in Bahrain, Rahul (name changed), a native of Vytilla in Ernakulam district, Kerala, was getting evacuated from his apartment near the US base there for the second consecutive night. On Sunday night, after Iran declared American targets anywhere in the world were a legitimate target, he and his family, including his 10-year-old daughter, were asked to evacuate due to the proximity of their apartment to the US base.

“We moved out to another apartment on Sunday night, and the offices declared work-from-home and schools’ online classes for Monday. Then on Monday, restrictions were lifted and an announcement came that normalcy had been restored, following which we returned to our apartment,” he said.

Just as he was taking a shower, a siren went off, and then came the direction to evacuate immediately. He rushed down with his family from the high-rise apartment and assembled in an open space with many others for nearly two hours before the announcement came that they could return home.

Rahul had booked tickets to fly home by this month end, but is now looking to prepone it if possible.