Turkey earthquake: NDRF rescuers return with stories of bonding over Bollywood, thank you note in Hindi & more

The NDRF's mission in earthquake-stricken Turkey was full of challenges—emotional, professional, and personal—including a paramedic leaving her 18-month twins behind to fulfil her duty, officials processing hundreds of documents to prepare more than 140 passports overnight, and rescuers being unable to take a bath for ten days.

After the challenging mission, they returned to India with a part of their hearts wondering if "we could have saved more lives." Still, another part was filled with the love and support they received from the affected people. 

Recalling what Ahmed, local mourning the loss of his wife and three children did, Deputy Commandant Deepak shared an interesting story on how he got his vegetarian food wherever he was stationed. 

Deputy Commandant Deepak said, "Ahmed somehow got to know I am a vegetarian. For days, he kept following my place of deployment anywhere I was working in Nurdagi and secretly handed over anything vegetarian he had like an apple or a tomato. He peppered it with salt or local spices to make it tasty." 

"He hugged me and called me Biradar. This is something I will never forget," Deepak said.

Also read: Turkey, Syria Earthquake: Revisiting India's efforts to aid nations rocked by natural disasters in past decade

The entry of the 152-member three National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and six canines into the disaster zone was swift, and their exit was "moving and emotional". They said they developed a bond with the people they helped during their most vulnerable times. 

Many Turkey nationals shed tears of gratitude to their 'Hindustani' friends and 'Biradars' who came in as saviours and took the combat patches and other military decorations from the uniforms of the Indian rescuers.

The federal contingency force that began its operation on February 7, rescued two young girls alive and retrieved 85 bodies from the debris before they returned to India last week. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated them in his official house at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg on Monday. The devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that slammed areas of Turkey and neighbouring Syria on February 6 also left more than 44,000 people dead and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

"The Consular Passport and Visa (CPV) division of the Ministry of External Affairs prepared passports for our rescuers overnight. They processed hundreds of documents in minutes as the Indian government directed the NDRF to proceed to Turkey," NDRF Inspector General (IG) N S Bundela told reporters in New Delhi. 

Another official claimed that only a small number of the 152 officers had diplomatic passports ready for travel abroad, and that hundreds of documents were submitted by fax and email to the NDRF teams in Varanasi and Kolkata for processing to create the passports. 

Also read: Earthquake-hit Turkey, Syria likely to see spread of infectious diseases in next few weeks: Experts

"Turkey gave our teams a Visa on arrival and we were deployed in Nurdagi (Gaziantep province) and Hatay as soon as we landed there," second-in-command (operations)-rank officer Rakesh Ranjan said.

One of the five women rescuers dispatched to a foreign catastrophe combat mission for the first time was 32-year-old Constable Sushma Yadav. Her 18-month-old twins would have to be left behind. She didn't hesitate, though.

"Because if we do not do it, who will? I and another male colleague were the two paramedics of the NDRF team. Our job was to keep our rescuers safe, healthy and nourished so they can do their work without getting sick in the sub-zero temperature, which fell as much as minus 5 degrees in Turkey," Yadav told PTI. 

"I left my twins with my in-laws and this was the first time I left them for so long. But there was no difficulty in volunteering for the operation." 

According to Sub-Inspector Shivani Agarwal, her parents had no issue with her going for Operation Dost, but they found it difficult to talk to her about how she was doing.

"There is a time lag of about 2.5 hours between India and Turkey. So by the time I got free and called them up it was 11:30 in the night. They picked the call on the first ring as if they were literally holding on to the phone," Agarwal said. 

While assisting with the logistics for the rescue teams, Constable Rekha, who joined the force in 2020 from the ITBP, said they also reached out to women affected by the disaster.

Second-in-command-rank officer V N Parashar, who led his team on the ground, showed multiple military patches that are carried on police and army uniforms, that were handed over to him as a token of gratitude even as his and that of his team members' 'NDRF-India' and NDRF logo' chest and arms badges were taken by the locals as a memory of the 'friends from India'. 

Also read: Dashcam footage of latest major Turkey earthquake goes viral | WATCH

Parashar said he and others received WhatsApp messages from several people who wrote 'thanks' to them and got it translated to Hindi from Google before sending it to them. 

"The locals did not know Hindi or English. What we saw was the language of humanity and respect for India. We wish we could have saved more lives...but what we received there was such love which cannot be earned easily," Parashar added. 

Several NDRF rescuers said many people spoke to them emotionally about Indian movies and actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone and some others and even clicked selfies with them, saying, "if you meet them say Turkish people love them." 

"There was a local woman volunteer who could hum bits of a Hindi movie song and can even match its dance steps...we bonded very well in doing what we were supposed to do," Sub-Inspector Agarwal said. 

Sub-Inspector Bintu Bhoria informed that none of the rescuers could bathe for all the 10 days they were in Turkey. Another officer said the NDRF personnel took a sponge bath and dug trenches to defecate and urinate. 

"However, we ensured we cleaned all the locations that we lived at. While returning, we only brought along the love and affection of the Turkey people and donated our tents, food, personal clothes, warm clothes etc. for the locals and the Turkish rescuers," NDRF officer Vipin Pratap Singh said.

(With inputs from PTI)