Homeward bound: City prof starts 1.5k km journey to Mashhad to escape from Iran
Kolkata: It is a race against time for geography professor Falguni Dey to travel from Astara to Mashhad, through the war-ravaged Iran, where India has already started an evacuation operation.
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It'll be a 1,500 km, 22-hour long journey to Mashhad from where Dey is currently camping now.
Hopeful of getting entry through the Nurduz-Agarak border to Armenia, which has allowed hundreds of Indians to cross the border and head back home, Dey had applied for an e-visa with the country. On Friday late evening, Armenia declined his visa application, leaving Dey hapless and desperate. Azerbaijan, which has also been allowing foreign nationals, kept silent on his application as well.
Desperate to escape Iran, Dey called up an official at the Indian embassy in Tehran on Friday night. "He suggested I reach Mashhad somehow as the Indian authorities have already started evacuating from there. There is no other way out for me. It is going to be nearly a 1,500 km journey from the northwest of Iran to the west of the country," Dey told TOI over phone.
India launched Operation Sindhu earlier this week to evacuate Indians stranded in Iran after Tehran agreed to lift airspace restrictions as a "special gesture".
During the evacuation operation, India evacuated 517 nationals from Iran by Saturday morning. Mashhad is close to Iran's border with Turkmenistan, and India started evacuating through a safe air corridor.
Virtually penniless, Dey, on Friday night, approached a car driver who agreed to take him on the arduous and dangerous route to Mashhad. "I told him that I can transfer the amount to his bank account only when I am back in India.
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He thought for a brief moment and agreed to take me to Mashhad. He was like a Godsend to me, ready to take a stranger on a 1,500 km journey with just an assurance to be paid later," he said.
The 600km stretch from Tabriz in northwest Iran to Tehran was severely damaged after Israeli missile attacks. Drones, quadcopters, and spike-guided missiles bombed large parts of the country. Vibrant and noisy Tehran and the adjoining areas have transformed into abandoned streets amid an eerie silence. "We will try to bypass Tehran. We are not sure if there will be a fresh phase of attack," said Dey. While the internet is cut off in large parts of Iran, Mashhad still has connectivity.
"I will be able to receive and send documents only when I am in Mashhad. I hope it will be a little better among many other Indians."
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