Sweet surprise ends the horror for U'khand victims

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Vijayawada: Every crisis, they say, brings with it an opportunity. Scores of pilgrims from AP ‘realised’ that when the tough time they had in the rain ravaged Uttarakhand for days finally brought with it a real sweet surprise: A ‘maiden’ air journey back home.
Well, that’s something they hadn’t thought even in their wildest of dreams when they left for Uttarakhand on a journey to the famous Char Dham religious circuit. So, when they boarded a flight back home at the Dehradun airport, it was literally a dream come true for all these proud “first time” air travellers.
And the dream (air) journey made them forget not just the nightmarish time they spent stranded for days in the monsoon ravaged Himalayas without food, water and shelter. These rather excited pilgrims also forgot the “ugly tiff” the leaders of the ruling Congress and the Telugu Desam had while vying with each other to take the credit for emplaning them back to AP.
All these first time air travellers remembered was the air journey. “It was a God sent opportunity I shall not be able to forget all my life”, said an excited Vijayawada Municipal Corporation worker G. Durga Rao recalling the TD arranged junket. The poor labourer had got stranded in flood hit Kedarnath.
Rao said he enjoyed the air journey along with six petty vendors from Mallikarjunapet in Vijayawada who were ‘equally happy with their maiden experience of flying high in the sky.”Admitted T. Nageswara Rao, a tea vendor and his wife Lakshmi of Mangalagiri, “We had never dreamt of travelling by an aircraft.”
“After surviving the flood fury in Uttarakhand, God provided us an opportunity to travel in a flight”, they added. “We experienced no fear during our air journey as we had seen the worst the cataclysmic Uttarakhand flash floods”, said the couple in unison.
Sobhi Pulla Rao, running a small canteen in Amaravathi of Guntur district said he and his wife Bharathilakshmi were lucky to have travelled in aircraft for the first time. The couple observed that the free air travel provided great relief to those pilgrims who got stranded for several days without food and water in Uttarakhand.
Over 358 passengers reached Hyderabad from Delhi in special flights arranged by the TD for three days starting from June 24. From Hyderabad to Vijayawada, free bus facility was provided by senior TD leader Kesineni Srinivas(Nani).