A mother reflects on her experience being separated from her family for seven months

English transcript | نسخة عربية

Nationality: Indian
Occupation: Financial analyst
Date of interview: 10 September 2020
Language of interview: English

Meena thought she was leaving Kuwait for just one day, but now it may be forever. On a day-trip out of Kuwait, Meena finds herself trapped during her layover in Dubai because of the new COVID-related travel policies. Kuwait is only allowing citizens to enter, but will not accept permanent residents. Despite living in Kuwait for 23 years, and her children knowing only Kuwait as their home, she is locked out, away from her family; away from her 16-year old daughter for the first time. Meena is forced to return to Goa, India, and live in a town she has only visited, in a flat she has never lived in. She has never been away from her family for more than two days, and while she can continue her work as a financial analyst online, with most of her colleagues unaware of her situation, at night she finds herself alone with her despair. It is unclear when she will be going home—she misses her daughter's 16th birthday, she is not with her when she gets her final exam scores. For the first time in her life, she is living alone, and feels like a stranger in her country-of-passport, navigating a complex bureaucracy to deal with the utilities ministries, unable to ask for or receive help as everyone else is also in lockdown. For the first time in her life, she struggles with depression, loneliness and hopelessness, but she cannot reveal to anyone what she is going through.

When she is finally able to return to Kuwait, almost seven months later, she has changed as a person. Her perspective on what she values, and what is important, has shifted completely. She feels more resilient and grateful to have survived this dark time. She sees herself before the pandemic as someone who was negative, angry, a materialist most happy when shopping for extravagant luxuries. After months of carefully washing out her one set of clothes to wear each day, and living with the barest of necessities, taking care of everything herself, and being so lonely in her grief, she decides to change herself and her life’s focus, for something simpler and more meaningful. Meena now reaches out to friends and family to help others who are stuck as she was, and to help them manage to afford the journey back to Kuwait, which is so difficult for many due to the sky-rocketing airline and hotel costs. She also wants to explore ways to provide support for the emotional well-being of residents in her situation, so they do not feel as alone as she did. Meena reflects on the fact that her daughter has always said “Kuwait is my soil,” and never wanted to leave. But after living through this experience, her whole family is stunned by a new sense of exclusion from the country they have called home for so long, and wonder if there is a place for them in Kuwait anymore.

In the clip above, Meena tells us about the moment when she came to discover that she was banned from entering Kuwait; her home.

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