Dehradun: The plight of 21-year-old Rishabh Kaushik finally ended when he reached his home in Dehradun on March 4 evening with his pet dog 'Maliboo' after a hectic journey of 200 hours that saw him travel through conflict ridden Ukraine. Rishabh came into limelight after he had refused to leave the war-torn country without his pet.
The Indian Air Force (IAF)'s evacuation flight from Budapest in Hungary, had landed on Friday morning at Ghaziabad's Hindon Airbase, from where Kaushik hired a cab to reach Dehradun. Family members welcomed Rishabh and his companion Maliboo by performing the aarti and applying tika.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Rishabh, who was a third-year computer engineering student at Kharkiv National University, said he was happy to reach home especially with his new friend. "I am extremely happy as I finally managed to bring my Maliboo safely with me to India. Obviously, the journey was not easy I started my journey on the February 23 from Kharkiv and reached Kyiv. The bombings started on the same day, so amid the intensified Russian attack, I decided to move towards Lviv in the country's west to reach the Hungarian border as per the plans fixed by the pet relocation firm," he said.
The first major challenge, he said, was to board a train at Kyiv for immigrants "like me". "With a pet, it became more difficult but I somehow managed to board the train," he said. "Maliboo was completely exhausted due to the constant travelling and the stressful situation all around. During the 25-hour-long train journey, I couldn't feed him properly as he would vomit due to motion sickness. But he remained calm and a good companion throughout the journey till Budapest, where we reached on March 2," said Rishabh.
As per the evacuation plans by Indian authorities, Rishabh and Maliboo finally boarded an IAF flight from Budapest on Thursday (March 3) evening. Rishabh's uncle Sanjay said that ETV Bharat's coverage helped Rishabh a lot in getting all the paperwork done and getting the NOC to bring his pet back to India. Rishabh, he said, is also getting offers from an OTT platform for a documentary on the struggle he faced during his journey through the war-torn country with the pet.
Rishab's grandmother said the family was extremely happy by his safe return. "No one has slept properly in the family in the last 10 days as Rishabh is the only grandson to her and he was stuck in a war-torn country. Now as he reached home, we all are relaxed and happy seeing him and the new member he is accompanying," she said.
