BHOPAL: War is turning out to be a gut-wrenching experience in more ways than one for vegetarian Indians stuck in Ukraine. They are surviving on bread and jam. Chocolates have been set aside for when their bread runs out in a couple of days.
“Then, we don’t know what to do,” said Sanskaar Verma, a first-year medical student.
“This country is easy for non-vegetarian students. Vegetarian food is more expensive, anyway, and impossible to get now,” he said. They depended on their hostel kitchen to get by but with everything shut down now, the mess has thrown up its hands.
“When war broke out, we rushed to buy bread, jam, fruits and chocolates. We are sharing and rationing our meagre supplies but will run out of it very soon,” he said.
Before the war, non-vegetarian students could make do with $50 a month, but vegetarians had to fork out up to three times more. Even if markets open, they don’t have money to buy veggies. “The bank has told us that we can’t withdraw money from the ATM,” said another first-year student, Narendra Kumar.
“We are counting every second, praying to god that we are evacuated quickly,” said Sanskaar.
