How Assamese Students in Ukraine are Reconnecting with Home through Food amid Corona Lockdown

Kiev, April 15, 2020:

Even as 1.3 billion Indians continue to stay indoors as the administration in battles the new coronavirus that has affected 20 lakh people worldwide, thousands of kilometres away in Ukraine, students from Assam are celebrating Bihu in their own unique way. These students, it has come to light, are re-connecting with their motherland by cooking traditional dishes in a foreign land.

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Samadrita Hazarika, a 2nd year MBBS student studying at the Uzhhorod National University, reached out to Inside Northeast to share how she and her friends from Assam are celebrating the festival in a locked down Ukraine. She said, "Assamese students here in Ukraine are celebrating in their own individual way as we all are quarantined. Some of them are cooking delicacies in remembrance of their homemade food. They all miss food cooked during this time of celebration, it seems. It is tough to just forget the trauma that we are all going through amid this virus outbreak, but we are praying for hope and peace on Bihu."

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Over in Ukraine too, people are strictly adhering to lockdown rules, she says, adding that fines can also be imposed on people who violate the norms, such as the wearing of masks. Hazarika said, "Lockdown has been implemented here as well and apart from food supermarkets and pharmacies, everything has been closed down."

[caption id="attachment_57252" align="alignnone" width="660"] Dishes cooked by Assamese MBBS students[/caption]

Shedding some light on the rules and regulations that have been imposed by the administration, she said, "Without mask, if anybody goes outside, a huge fine will be imposed. Supermarkets are also using very hygienic processes such as providing sanitizers to every person who enters the mall. Also, the workers are wearing both masks and gloves. They have put paramount importance on hygiene".

[caption id="attachment_57253" align="alignnone" width="569"] Samadrita's group of friends[/caption]

Meanwhile, the new coronavirus which is the seventh to affect humans, has infected 3,764 people in Ukraine and killed 108 so far. Recently, however, Indian students complained to the Supreme Court that they are being mistreated in the country.

In a recent incident, more than 600 MBSS students from Himachal Pradesh have launched a hunger strike in Ukraine to highlight the lack of medicines and necessary amenities at the Medical University of Chernivtsi.

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The MBBS students have claimed they are being harassed physically and mentally by local authorities. In a letter to Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde of the Indian Supreme Court, the students have claimed that local police in Ukraine's Chernivtsi are subjecting them to "third-degree torture because they are Indians".

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