Anguished expatriates rue loss of another vacation

Many of them are frustrated at being cut off from their loved ones back home for nearly two years

Reshmi Rajesh chokes up with emotion every time she talks about her octogenarian father who had a miraculous return to life from what looked like a point of no return a few years ago. He suffered a stroke and was on ventilator support before making a courageous comeback, albeit much weakened. Sitting in her apartment in Abu Dhabhi, where she has been working for close to two decades, a desolate Ms. Rajesh rues not having seen her frail father and mother back in Aluva for two years now. “He hardly comes online, as he is not comfortable with it. Though my siblings are nearby, even they are staying away for fear of infecting our aged parents. He does not have anyone to talk to him, and that thought kills me,” she said.