Aircrash survivors grapple with dreams — and nightmares

Speaking to The Sunday Express on the phone,he says he’s trying hard to get a job. “Air India had promised me a job. But it’s been a year and nothing has happened,” says Pradeep,who lives in a village 40 kilometres from Mangalore.

Most of the survivors The Sunday Express spoke to are still trying to build their lives from scratch,awaiting jobs promised by Air India.

Joel Pratap D’Souza,25,a machine operator in Dubai,lost his job to someone else. “I have no work. I am at home,” says D’Souza,who suffered a spinal injury and was put on seven-month bed rest after the crash.

On the insistence of his sister,who is settled in Dubai,D’Souza travelled there in October last year. “I was very scared when I boarded the flight. Thankfully,my friend was with me.”

D’Souza took the same Air India Express flight from Mangalore to Dubai and back. “For a full day and night before the flight,I couldn’t sleep,” he says. He avoids meeting other survivors,as it reminds him of the incident. D’Souza now hopes to find a suitable job and settle down with a girl of his choice in the next two years. “I am looking for a girlfriend,but haven’t found anybody yet,” he says.

Before the crash,Putturismail Abdulla worked in Dubai as a store manager for six years,at a monthly salary of Rs 40,000. “Most of the customers were Russian,” he recalls. Today,he has no job,but shoulders the responsibility of his parents,wife and a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

“Air India offered a job at Rs 6,500 per month,and that too on contract. How will I feed my family in such a small amount?” says Abdulla,who dropped out after high school. “On hopes of receiving a job from Air India,I kept my previous employer waiting. He later hired an Irani.”

In January,he went to Dubai to look for a job on a one-way free ticket from Air India. “My wife told me not to go. But I had to go. Dubai has work,here it is only expenses.” But he returned empty-handed.

During the day,he helps his father on his small coconut farm. In the evenings,he plays with his daughter and tries to forget the tragedy. “Doctors said not to remember that morning at all,” he says.

Mohamed Usman,a resident of Karkala,Mangalore,got his new passport last month,after the previous one burnt in the plane crash.

“My wife had to go to Dubai to sell our house and two cars in Dubai,” says Usman,who ran a logistics business in Dubai for 29 years. He had come to Mangalore last year to get his son operated,and has stayed on since then.

“I am building commercial property on our land in Karkala,” he says. The incident has changed his life. “I am more religious now. I pray everyday,” says Usman,adding,“Now I know what the value of life is.”

For 48-year-old Krishnan Koolikkunnu,a resident of Kasargod,Kerala,his nine-year stint in Dubai as an ordinary labourer came to an end with the plane crash. “My work visa expired; it is difficult to go there. I have no job,” he says.

His parents,wife and two daughters don’t want him to go to Dubai,where he earned Rs 15,000 a month. “They get scared,and say don’t go on a plane.”

He watches television when he is reminded of the ghastly accident. “The screams of women and children crying those last few seconds… the scenes come back to haunt me,” he says. He is thankful he got a new lease of life. “So many people died. My parents thank God for returning me alive.”

Unemployment haunts Mayankutty KP,a resident of Kerala,too. “I went to Dubai just a day before my work visa was to expire to renew it,but I found no work,” he says. For six years,he worked in a Dubai firm in its Public Relations department. “My mental health is still not right,” he says,adding that he is still hoping to get the job promised by Air India.

Two other survivors,Sabrina Nasrinhuq and Ummerfarook Mohammed,could not be contacted.

When contacted,a senior executive from Air India said they had offered jobs to survivors on the basis of their educational qualifications. But most turned down the offers as they didn’t match the salaries they were getting in Dubai.

“Being a PSU,we have to follow the recruitment guidelines. In this case,on compassionate grounds,we had made job offers to the survivors,” said the executive.

Meanwhile,as the survivors try to resurrect their lives,they cling on to the hope of a better future. “It is going to rain,” says Pradeep. “It will get better now.”