Vijayawada: Covid-19 forces her to study medicine online

Vijayawada: Little did Nirmesha Pothula realise that she would be back in Vijayawada when she boarded the plane in November last year to study medicine in University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy. Now she is studying medicine online and preparing for the first semester examination, courtesy coronavirus.

Nirmesha wrote the world-wide entrance examination to study medicine in University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, one of the top ranking universities in Europe. She was the only one Indian who secured the seat in the university though several hundreds of students appeared for the examination in Delhi.

The Covid-19 broke out in January in the northern parts of Italy and everyone thought it would not spread much. But it was proved wrong. Soon it started spreading its tentacles.

Nirmesha says that they were asked to remain in home quarantine on January 26. After completing the quarantine, the Indian Embassy called all of us, the Indian students of the same university. After so much haggling, we boarded the Air India plane on March 22.

"Every one of us thought that our ordeal was over. But it was not. We were taken to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) centre where we were asked to spend 21 days."

By that time all the flights were cancelled and they could not fly back to Vijayawada.

In all, 11 students including Nirmesha hired a minivan and started long journey from Delhi to Vijayawada. "It took about 50 hours to reach Vijayawada traversing various States," she said.

The hectic journey started on April 12 and ended on April 14 finally setting their foot in Vijayawada.Nirmesha said that there was nothing she could do in the university since all the senior students were enrolled to work on cases of Covid-19 and she was in the first semester.

She said that she was happy that she is at home with her parents.

"I am now studying online and would appear for exams online for the first semester," Nirmesha said.

She said that she was looking forward to get back to the medical college.

Nirmesha Pothula, a native of Vijayawada, boarded plane in November last year to study medicine in University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy

As Covid-19 broke out in Italy, she was asked to remain in home quarantine on Jan 26

After completion of quarantine, following the initiative of Indian Embassy, Nirmesha along with other Indian students of the varsity, boarded Air India plane on March 22

Later, they were kept in isolation at Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) centre for 21 days

On April 12, 11 students including Nirmesha hired a minivan and started long journey from Delhi to Vijayawada

After 50 hours of hectic journey, they reached Vijayawada on April 14