A one-year-old boy and a 95-year-old granddad are amongst the first batch of Kiwis stranded in India who has been confirmed with a seat in the govt assisted charter flight back home.
The first flight is tentatively scheduled to depart New Delhi at 2 a.m. on April 24.
Those in the flight are still not aware of the exact timings of the flight’s arrival at the Auckland airport and further quarantine plans.
Since April 9, the Government has announced that all incoming travellers will be quarantined away from their homes and families for a 14 day period.
One-year-old Aadish Saxena who was travelling with his mum Anu Chandra leaving behind his six-year-old brother and father Shobit Nirala back in Auckland, when they were caught up by the Covid-19 related NZ border closure.
The family had gone to India to participate in the funeral of their grandfather before the father and the elder son returned back to Auckland leaving behind the mother and the youngest son in the family.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic related global travel restrictions set-in the family suffered from acute separation anxiety with mum and one-year-old stranded thousands of kilometres away while father and the elder son were left alone in their Auckland home. The father Shobhit who works as a software development engineer for a major telecom told the Indian Weekender that it was deeply assuring to get his other half of family being finally able to return back home.
“I am really happy that finally, we are able to unite together,” Shobhit said.
Probably, the tag for the oldest passenger on the first charter flight from India would go to 95-year-old Jagat Singh who is currently locked with his son Kharag Singh in Chandigarh Punjab.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender his son Kharag Singh said, “My father has been anxious ever since the news of border closure and the lockdown was conveyed to him and we missed our scheduled flight to return back home on March 24.”
“He has been living in New Zealand since 1991 when he first arrived with mum and considers it as his home.”
“The news of border closure and travel restrictions has expectedly made him anxious,” Mr Singh said.
"We have planned this trip for him to meet his immediate sister (86 year old) and the extended family in Punjab," Kharag Singh said.
Jagat Singh served in Royal British Air Force (before India’s independence) and the Indian Airforce before coming to New Zealand to live permanently with his son and the family.
Jagat Singh is deeply religious and community person who till date used to go regularly to Takanini Gurudwara for Sewa (community service).
He has travelled to Punjab, his ancestral home to meet his immediate and extended family members.
Sharing more details about his 95-year-old dad’s emotional and somewhat tumultuous journey to their ancestral home in India and then now back home to New Zealand Kharag Singh said, “This experience is going to be permanently inked in our memories now.”
A medical doctor has visited Jagat Singh’s home in Chandigarh and issued a medically fit certificate to take the return Air New Zealand flight on April 24.
The New Zealand High Commission in Delhi has organised ground transport for all passengers to Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi prior to the flight, including permission to travel.