18-year-old Harsh Chandak was at his home in Bengaluru when his father told him that his grandparents – who were travelling alone to the US – were in trouble.
Harsh’s grandfather, 77-year-old Giridhari Chandak, had suffered a stroke while on a flight, and his 74-year-old grandmother was obviously panicking. The Cathay Pacific flight made an emergency landing in Anchorage, in Alaska. The couple was sent to a local hospital – Providence Alaska Medical Center.
The Chandak family back in Bengaluru was really worried because they didn’t know any friend or relative who could meet the elderly couple to ensure they got any assistance they needed. They desperately wanted an Indian to comfort them.
And guess what, it happened. Within an hour, an Indian couple – who were unknown to the Chandak family – reached the hospital.
Sanjay Talwar, an Indian-American known to the consulate in Los Angeles, visited the couple with his wife, says this report in Bangalore Mirror.
And it wasn’t a coincidence. Talwar’s visit came as a result of a timely tweet by the 18-year-old grandson to the Indian Embassy
He soon got a reply
Help had reached the elderly couple, and Harsh confirmed it:
This is even more interesting given that Alaska only has seven Indian families, and these include Indian-American ones.
While the elderly couple was happy that an Indian visited them, they were delighted that Talwar’s wife had even brought home-cooked
Talwar, an IT businessman and a board member of Asian Alaskan Cultural Center (AACC), told the newspaper, “The AACC invites the Indian Consulate from LA to Alaska every year. That is how the Consulate knows me. They urged me to check on Chandak and see if he needed any help. That is how I got involved.”