The agonising tales of Indian medical students, who’ve returned from war-torn Ukraine, haven’t ended with their safe return home. It has only marked the beginning of a period of distress over losing a crucial academic year. Even as the Maharashtra government and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) are working on offering a temporary three-month online module to these students, many continue to do what they can in the hope of being permanently accommodated in Indian medical colleges.

Sahil Pal, 20, a resident of Goregaon, was among the batch of students who returned to India on March 4. Pal  is a second year MBBS student from Zaporozhye State Medical University, Zaporozhye in south-eastern Ukraine. “Our university started online classes from March 21. The classes are regular, but the problem we are facing has to do with the lack of practical knowledge.” He added, “Our parents are scared and still in trauma, thinking about students who lost their lives [in Ukraine]. We hope to get seats in our respective states. We are even ready to appear for entrance exams. But, we’d need admissions in the course year that we are currently pursuing.”