Man in quarantine gets a day to meet family after wife, daughter died in accident

Ch Sushil Rao / TNN / May 26, 2020, 13:59 IST

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An Indian from Telangana who returned from Dubai following the death of his wife and daughter and a relative got one day’s ‘leave’ from the paid quarantine in Hyderabad to meet his grieving mother and daughter in Mancherial district during lockdown.

Man in quarantine gets a day to meet family after wife, daughter died in accident

HYDERABAD: An Indian from Telangana who returned from Dubai following the death of his wife and daughter and a relative got one day’s ‘leave’ from the paid quarantine in Hyderabad to meet his grieving mother and daughter in Mancherial district during lockdown.
Poignant scenes were witnessed at the ‘meeting’ as Poturajula Srinivas signalled to his younger daughter Vaishnavi not to come close to him as he had not completed his quarantine period when he went home.

As Srinivas sat in a chair weeping, several feet away, his daughter and other family members grieved the deaths in the family.
Poturajula Srinivas is back in quarantine in Hyderabad after the visit to his village at Luxettipet in Mancherial district. Srinivas’ wife Sujatha, 38, elder daughter Kavya, 19 and another relative died in a road mishap on May 15. They were hit by a lorry. Srinivas who was in Dubai could do nothing except to watch the last rites through a video call. Thanks to the help extended by social workers, he could take a flight back home in the evacuation flights but was straightaway taken for mandatory quarantine.
With an appeal being made on his behalf by former MP Kavitha Kalvakuntla, chief secretary Somesh Kumar in a letter on May 23 allowed Srinivas to visit his village but only for a day for performing the rituals in connection with the death of his family members. “After attending the rituals, the individual should return to the institutional quarantine at Nampally (in Hyderabad),” the chief secretary said.

According to Telangana Jagruthi general secretary Naveen Achari, a vehicle was also provided by them to take Srinivas to his village on May 24 and bring him back to the quarantine in Hyderabad.
Srinivas went to Dubai for work some months ago but had not stabilised in a job as yet because of the lockdown. “I went to Dubai to earn some money to take care of my wife but the deaths have devastated me. I do not intend going back and will earn my living somehow here itself,” Srinivas said.

About the Author

Ch Sushil Rao

Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.

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