Thiruvananthapuram: She is tense at two minutes to 2 pm, her three-minute talk would begin soon. Marina Jose has a few things to say at Loka Kerala Sabha and she speaks on behalf of all Malayali nurses living abroad.
There should be an advisor, a representative of the Embassy, to visit the nurses at their accommodation and listen to their grievances. Schools in Kerala could hire two nurses, ensuring job opportunities for those returning home. Three minutes become five, but Marina finishes what she started. She always does. Her story of escaping the terror attacks in Iraq to lead a team back home has inspired the award-winning film, Take Off.
"What is shown in the film is not even one-tenth of what we really went through. It looks like nothing on screen to those who experienced the agony of being trapped in a building surrounded by bomb attacks for 23 days," Marina says. "Even so when you watch the ending, when you watch them finally come home, your eyes well up, remembering those days."
There has been no phone tucked into food packets thrown from a helicopter. "There were barely a few snack items that the Red Cross threw," Marina remembers. She had not planned to take the lead, nor is she such a courageous woman. But she has been a senior, with years of experience working in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia before this.
"I phoned my father the first day of the attack and my number got passed on to the Chief Minister's office. So all the contact has been through me - every media would call me. We couldn't sleep. The temperature was above 46 degrees, electricity was a few bulbs."
Every hospital would have at least one Malayali nurse, Marina says, doing dedicated work but still facing the discrimination and neglect shown to Indians. "There will be harassment from co-workers and bosses. But they tolerate everything because of the difficulties back home." Perhaps why many didn't want to return even as bombs fell all around them.
The tougher challenge came for Marina when a few of the nurses said they'd rather die in Iraq. "We had to try convincing them. 13 of us were ready to go back, and they supported me. The others would be angry when I got so many calls to arrange our escape.
“I didn't know if we would die. My only prayer was at least my body should reach home, so they will not hope endlessly," she says, looking at her son Mervin, now in seventh grade.
There is a daughter back home in Pala, Reya in fourth grade, and her husband Roy. Marina hasn't gone to work after that, she will if she got a senior position. She is a '96 graduate, she says.
