By Shankar Raj*
Thiruvananthapuram: A young widow and her family have decided to sue Air India for “unbridgeable” mental agony, loss and irreparable destruction of their livelihood.
Amrita (25), who had got an urgent call from Oman to rush to fulfill the last wishes of her dying husband Nambi Rajesh (40), an Information Technology project manager based in Muscat, could not make it as Air India cancelled her flight from Kerala due to the flash strike by its employees.
As soon as the hospital authorities in Oman asked her to quickly take a flight to see her critically ill husband one last time, she sold all her belongings and put her house on a huge mortgage to raise money for her ticket.
Rajesh succumbed to his illness on Monday, May 13, 2024.
Amrita shared her plight with the media stating that despite her desperate pleas to company representatives at the airport, no one came to her aid.
Amrita’s mother, Chitra, said her daughter begged them repeatedly, in vain. Chitra expressed her frustration and disappointment saying airline officials were unsympathetic. “Because of their strike, my daughter could not see her husband. This is outrageous. We lost our sole breadwinner,” she told the media.
Amrita is a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) nursing student and mother of two children, aged five and three and is now uncertain about their future in the wake of this tragedy.
Chitra said they intend to take legal action against the airline and seek compensation for their loss.
Amrita had booked her tickets on an Air India Express flight on May 8. But flight cancellations thwarted her trip. Despite being notified of her scheduled departure on May 9, she was unable to travel due to the unavailability of flights on that day.
Air India responded clinically saying it would refund the ticket fare. But the family said the airline is fully responsible for Amrita’s current situation and they will file a case against the firm.
*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
Interesting story. But, is the ticket fare so high that the widow had to mortgage her house to get Air India Express flight. It is horrible that all airlines are squeezing the working class expats especially during school summer vacation. Neither the Indian government nor the airlines listen to the plight of the people.