00:05and joining us now on this broadcast is pv sindhu olympian and ace shuttler sindhu thank you very
00:12much for joining us here on india today can i just begin by saying we're so glad you're back home
00:17back in india and back safe we've been seeing and tracking all that you've been putting out
00:21on social media about what you faced take us through it sindhu what happened with you in dubai
00:31oh well yeah one second i'm sorry sure no problem
00:39can you hear me yeah i can hear you sindhu if you're comfortable you hear me yeah
00:46yeah yeah one second
00:56yeah um hi so i mean yeah it was pretty uh bad scene like when we landed on the 28th
01:03of course
01:04i've already mentioned actually you know a lot of i kept getting a lot of messages and a lot of
01:08calls
01:09actually you know because when we landed and the airport was shut they said you know the airspace
01:14was completely shut and you know you have to wait until the next call comes so it was pretty bad
01:19we
01:20were in a pretty bad situation but i think uh you know later on they had uh told us that
01:24you know uh
01:25we don't know when will it open so i was hoping that you know maybe in a day it would
01:29have it would be
01:30fine and then you know one day passed and a second day passed so i was like you know i
01:35was thinking that
01:36you know what's going to happen because i was you know actually going for the all england championships
01:39but um yeah unfortunately you know i i couldn't but i must say i safely uh you know reached back
01:46home
01:47i think that was uh way more important is what i feel at the moment
01:50now i completely agree with you especially looking at so many people still stuck in parts of dubai
01:56abu dhabi wondering when they'll get back home uh but just to talk about what you went through in
02:01those few days sindhu were you stuck at the airport yeah we were at the airport like almost
02:09for like um you know 10 12 hours and uh finally they have uh you know agreed to give a
02:15initially
02:16they were not allowing us outside the airport as well because you know there was a lot of crowd
02:20trying to you know go out and they said that you know we would be giving a transit hotel and
02:25then
02:26whenever you get uh any any uh email you can come back to the airport but you know that also
02:31took
02:31time because there was there were so many people because all the flights have been cancelled right
02:36so from different terminals so it was literally like a chaos like like whole there's so many people
02:42were there so it took us some time to actually know what's going on and finally when they said and
02:49we we got the vouchers to go to the hotel we left we were on the way and then my
02:54coach actually
02:54was at the airport and um you know all of a sudden you know 100 meters away he just heard
03:00a
03:00you know it's like i don't know what it was exactly he heard a noise and they all started running
03:06so it was terrifying at the moment like because we didn't know what was going on we i we were
03:11in the
03:12bus but um you know the my coach was at the airport so they had to immediately take him in
03:19the bus and
03:19then shift him to a hotel and then we finally you know reach the hotel around like in the midnight
03:25and we we got rooms but i think i must say that you know the uh i'm very thankful to
03:30the uh emirates
03:32people for accommodating so many people uh in different hotels at the same time um you know
03:38indian consulate uh you know from there dubai they've all they have managed everything really
03:44well and i think it was really really uh very nice of them to actually accommodate a lot of people
03:49and take care of uh all of us and of course uh government also was very helpful uh ram mohan
03:56had called me and asked me how was the situation there and raksha ma'am had called me and uh
04:01yeah
04:01i've got called from uh sports minister's office as well so it was like everybody was very concerned
04:07of what was happening and of course the media people were also very concerned asking you know what
04:12was happening or how it is so yeah this was the whole situation it was really like a bit terrifying
04:18and we all are very very scared but yeah things were like okay at some point of time
04:23uh sindhu and i wonder did you see those pictures after uh of smoke blowing out of the dubai international
04:31airport one of the busiest airports in the world like you said uh and so to see those images of
04:36what
04:36happened at the airport right after did that kind of shock you did it numb you
04:44so basically i uh didn't see the smoke like at the airport like my coach saw it but uh yeah
04:50we
04:50heard we heard uh you know sounds like when we were at the hotel you know when they were intercepting
04:56yeah we heard the sound so it was a bit uh scary so we were at the hotel we didn't
05:00actually go out or
05:02you know we didn't stand out we were in the uh hotel itself and we've also got uh like the
05:07emergency messages saying that you know don't be close to the windows or you know uh stay in the
05:12hotel itself and be careful so we got an emergency message as well to all our phones so yeah we
05:18were
05:18very uh careful about that i i just want to also highlight that you know you were in one of
05:23what is
05:23considered to be one of the safest cities in the world and you know who would have thought that
05:29a war would break out and that a city like dubai would be held hostage did that run through your
05:34mind as well that i'm in a city like dubai as commercial as it is as you know full of
05:40activity
05:41as it is now completely crippled by a war
05:47well firstly dubai is one of the safest places yes we love dubai and uh of course me and my
05:52husband
05:53uh love dubai so i know it is one of the safest places and uh you know every time we
05:58go for a
05:58tournament we go through dubai we do a transit at dubai and no one even expected that you know this
06:04was going to happen like initially uh you know it was just 15 minutes like we landed at 1 p
06:09.m and
06:10you know 1 15 it was shut the airport was shut so like two hours before like some of the
06:15indian
06:16players did a transit in dubai and went to birmingham and they were okay and they landed fine and i
06:21i don't
06:21know what to say it was so unfortunate that you know it was just like you know those few minutes
06:26or an hour or so you know if i could have gone a bit early then everything would have been
06:30fine
06:31so i wouldn't have been here today but i would have been in birmingham you know playing my match but
06:36yeah i mean right now i can only say that you know it's important safety is important and uh you
06:42know
06:42it was it's it's good that you know they've arranged uh flights to a lot of you know indians and
06:46to different different cities like chennai bombay delhi and bangalore and i must really thank uh
06:53the councillor general of india you know who were at dubai and also from here coordinating uh from
06:59india also they were coordinating like how was the situation and everything so yeah hats off to them to
07:04actually help us yeah you know one thing that stood out for me not only just me but i mean
07:09so many
07:10so many indians yeah yeah i agree because you know you've seen it so you know what others are going
07:15through too but one aspect of what stood out for me from my conversation so far with you
07:20is how unpredictable things can be and you know as a player you know how unpredictable a game can be
07:26and that literally translated into real life for you because i'm sure you had no idea what was going
07:31to happen in the next 24 hours how long you'd remain in dubai with no way out and all of
07:35it
07:36because you said in a matter of minutes things changed yes yes absolutely i mean no one predicted
07:45this and we didn't even know how many days we were going to stay there and suddenly like yesterday we
07:50got a call in the evening because the emirates people actually came to the hotel and actually
07:55took our details and everything and then went back and we got a call from emirates saying that you know
08:00if you're traveling to india please do uh uh come back and even even then i've uh i've asked them
08:06that are there any flights to go to london or you know anywhere so that i could actually go and
08:12play
08:12a tournament um but they said no but if you are going to india please come to airport as soon
08:17as
08:17possible so it was just that minutes completely changed we had to pack everything and go to the
08:22airport but at the same time you know when we actually landed there we had no clue how how how
08:28is it
08:29going to be there because every every hour it was different because they they postponed the flights
08:34and then one at once they were like we all we suspended the flights and they're like we don't
08:38know when will the uh you know flights or a space a space will be on or um when will
08:44the flights fly
08:45we have no idea like everybody put their hands up and they were like we have no idea so it
08:50was
08:50terrifying like like what's happening like you know where are we like what is next we were all in
08:56that situation yeah and your hands are tied you know there's nothing you can do in such a situation
09:00but just sit tight and hope for the best hope that help comes your way i'm glad though that the
09:05government did step in actively to help you as well and here's hoping everyone else uh returns home
09:10safely sindhu i'll just again repeat that everyone and we as a nation heaved a sigh of relief when we
09:16found out that you're back home back safe we wish you could have gone to birmingham but you know the
09:21circumstances are such thank you so much thank you sindhu for joining us
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