NAGPUR: Mohammed Taha has sought a special permission to join the online classes slightly late. It’s 7.15am in Karachi while his school, which is in Bhopal, commences at 8.30 in the morning.
Both Taha, a Std VIII student, and his younger brother Mohammed Talha, are in Karachi since March. Though left stranded in
Pakistan after the borders with India again closed due to
Covid
, both haven’t missed their classes. With the pandemic spurring more innovation in education, online classes have not only provided option for brick and mortar schools but also made borders irrelevant.
Their father Mohammed Faisal has a business in UAE. His family including wife who is a Pakistani citizen and their two children live in Bhopal — which is Faisal’s hometown.
In March, Faisal’s wife and the two kids went to Karachi seeking a visa under a special case as her father was suffering from a heart disease. Faisal joined them later.
Since the first wave of the pandemic, hundreds have remained stranded and also repatriated in batches from time-to-time. Notwithstanding the closures, the travel across the borders has continued with more people getting stranded and sent back.
A batch of 400 is slated to return on June 28, but in Faisal’s family only his son Taha’s name is on the list. He has mailed the embassy requesting other names to be included.
As the family waits for its turn to return, one thing that has continued as usual is the children’s education. The brothers are conveniently attending the school back at home in Bhopal.
“We had requested the teacher to allow us late, but the delay is not beyond some minutes,” says Taha. “Our school was going on when we reached Pakistan. Vacations started a few days after the bridge classes. We started attending the new session from Karachi. This makes it almost a month of online classes from Karachi,” he says.
Taha’s subjects include English, social studies, maths, science, Hindi and Sanskrit. “The chapters include earth’s structure, democracy, and in Sanskrit it is mainly grammar,” he says.
“Mine are maths, English, EVS and Hindi,” says Talha, the younger one.
“The experience so far has been good,” say the brothers and add that none of the classmates ask about Pakistan but other friends do.
“The class teacher knows that we are in Pakistan, and she is fully cooperating,” said their mother.
Meanwhile, Faisal has sent is documents to the Indian embassy and waits for their turn to return. “Even if online classes are going on, they will have to return for other formalities,” says Faisal whose rest of the family including mother is in India.
There are a number of others in whose case names of some or other family members are missing. They taken to Twitter to air their grievance. One of them, Humayun Shaukat, tweets, “My wife is a NORI holder. Her name is not on the list but that of my children are. High Commission of India is not picking calls,” says another tweet.
Among the 400 who are set to cross the border, include 10-month-old Riyansh Udasi and his mother Sonya. TOI has reported about their case regularly. The child was conceived in India and born in Pakistan, leading to complications in his return after borders were shut.
Rajesh Jhambia of Sindhi Hindi Panchayat says it’s a positive step from Indian government and now Pakistan too should initiate repatriation of its citizens stranded here.
Umesh Kewalramani had gone to meet his ailing father who was in last stage of cancer in December. “The plan was to bring him back but his condition worsened and travel was not possible. He passed away later on,” said Kewalramani.
He had gone with his wife and two children on a no-objection return to India (NORI) visa. As they return, the airline officials allowed only the wife and children saying there were some problems in his documents. He now looks forward to returning on June 28.
Gurindo from Mumbai had gone to Sukkur town in Sindh from
Punjab to attend his brother’s wedding and hold his son’s thread ceremony in November. He is also slated to return on June 28.