Kolkata couple caught in Iran crossfire, return after 7 days

Time of India

20 hours ago

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Kolkata: Enakhi Singh, a resident of Alipore, returned home on Saturday after being stuck in Iran for seven days following the outbreak of war. Singh and her husband, who were in Iran on a month-long business trip, were stranded for seven days after the war started.
They finally managed to escape via Armenia.
It was a slow, warm, and happy afternoon in Tehran for Singh and her husband on June 12, the day before Israel started dropping bombs on Iran. "The world felt generous," Singh said as she went to bed that night. Little did she know that their lives were going to change completely in the next couple of hours.
"It was around 2.30 am, Tehran time, when the explosions began. At first, I thought they were fireworks.
But then, it got louder and closer. I looked outside the window. It was completely dark. But the sound continued to roll on," she recounted, sitting in her Alipore home. Her phone rang at 4 am when a friend, Surekha from Kolkata, called her frantically to say that Israel had declared war on Iran.
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By morning, Tehran went into shutdown mode with airspaces and highways being closed. Meanwhile, drones continued to fly above Tehran and drop payloads, intensifying fear.
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Singh managed to leave Tehran on June 15. "The war tightened its grip. Not just on our streets, but on our thoughts, our breath, and our plans. We were living in parentheses—paused between sirens and silence," she said.
Singh and her husband continued to drive towards Gisoom, more than 400 km northwest of Tehran. Everyone was trying to flee the city shattered by a mindless war. Meanwhile, her two daughters in India kept calling the Indian Embassy numbers tirelessly.
The news channels showed images of bombs falling on places the couple had visited during the trip. "Memory continued to overlay itself onto breaking news. When people spoke, they did not greet each other. Instead, they spoke of the wars and bombs," she said. They decided to move towards Rasht—an area closer to the Caspian Sea.
The internet was down across Iran, and threats from the US were making the situation even more unnerving.
Singh learned that the embassy was planning to evacuate through the India-Armenia border. An Iranian friend managed to get a car for them, and Singh and her husband left for the Iran-Armenia border.
After a drive of nearly eight hours, they reached the Iran-Armenia border. They passed through Iranian immigration, waving goodbye to their guide, Yasser. The stretch of no man's land seemed too long. They kept walking, sweating, and silently praying.
"At last, we reached Armenian immigration. An official from the Indian Embassy waited for us. But we had to wait for three more hours before we could finally leave for Yerevan," she added.
While Singh thought her nightmares were about to end, there were more in store for them. As they moved in Armenia, thick fog covers engulfed the area. "We could barely see two metres ahead. We were hungry, but fear made food irrelevant.
Even thirst retreated. Survival was the only need," she recounted.
After six hours, they finally stopped at a restaurant. There were two more hours of driving before they reached the hotel in Yerevan. "The last stretch felt unreal, like moving through a nightmare you couldn't wake from," she said.
They reached the hotel in Yerevan past midnight and dropped their bags. "In that dark, unfamiliar room, I closed my eyes and let the tears come not from fear, or relief, or grief, but from pure gratitude," she said. The next day, they left Yerevan on a flight that headed back to New Delhi.