COVID lockdown forced Chennai man to return to Kuwait, only to die in fire

CHENNAI: After a three-year-long stint in Kuwait as truck driver, during which he was irked by salary issues, he decided enough was enough. He packed his bags and returned home in 2018, and started his own transport company.

It only took two years for that dream to come down crashing due to something that the world has never experienced: a pandemic named COVID and the subsequent lockdown. Finding no other way to fend for his family and deal with the mounting debts, G Sivashankar (48) went back to the same Gulf country in April 2023.

What returned this time was his lifeless body in a closed casket, leaving only a large print out of his face stuck to the top of the coffin for his family members to see. The man from Panamara Thotti in Royapuram was one of the seven victims who died in the Kuwait fire tragedy earlier this week.

"It was the COVID lockdown that forced Sivashankar to go back to Kuwait to meet the family expense," said his family members fighting tears.

Sivasankar used to talk to the family at least five times a day. He called on Tuesday night. “But there was no call from him on Wednesday morning. After learning about the fire accident in Kuwait, we were anxious to know what happened and tried calling the agent who took him there. He said the incident was at the building where my husband stayed and that there was no information about him," his widow Hemakumari told DT Next.

Driven to panic, the family desperately tried to reach out to him, but in vain. The toll-free number announced by Kuwait authorities was of no use, the relatives said.

Later in the day, Hemakumari was told that Sivashankar’s name was neither on the list of dead nor hospitalised, which only added more turmoil to the family members. Including him, five people were on the missing list.

Then, there was no further information till Thursday, a period which the family spent swinging between hope and despair.

“That evening, the agent told us that he was no more," said the inconsolable widow.

"We hoped it to be a false news and did not fully believe it until we saw Appa’s face to identify. If there was profit in the transport business, he would have stayed with us. He went there for us, but now we have lost him," said his daughter Shadhika.

Having lost the sole breadwinner, the family is now banking on the hope that the State government would provide a job for the daughter.