On the verge of war: What it is like to be an Indian in Ukraine right now

India on Tuesday advised its citizens in Ukraine to temporarily leave that country amid escalating tension between Russia and the NATO countries.

New Delhi: Guns, tankers, arms-laden soldiers all around and constant fear and uncertainty of what the next moment awaits.

Visuals of marooned Indians flocking and running to the airports to catch their next flight home while the locals are chasing a safe spot to escape the inevitable.

This is merely a glimpse of a harrowing picture being painted by the Indian media on the ongoing Ukraine crisis as the threat of Russian invasion looms, but the ground reality is quite contrary.

Call it a coup, invasion, war or a military takeover-- the consequence of these ultra-modern terms that unveil some of the most sinister manifestations of human capabilities are beyond comprehension. It is nasty,  violent and wrong on all humanitarian levels.

However, in reality, people are anything but petrified, roads and markets are hosting happy faces, public institutions are operating as they were and Indians are not living in the borrowed time awaiting doomsday like your TV screens are projecting.