Now, their families are waiting with prayers for the safe return of two of them who went missing in Saturday's devastating Nepal earthquake. The quake had completely razed to the ground the six-storey hotel in which they were staying in Kathmandu.
One of them, Abin Suri, from Vadakara, had a miraculous escape after rescuers pulled him out of the debris of the hotel. Rescuers had to smash through a concrete wall for two hours to rescue him. Abin is now under treatment at the Tribuvan University Teaching Hospital at Kathmandu with fractures in hand and leg and bruise injuries. But his friends, Deepak Thomas from Kelakam in Kannur and Irshad from Kasaragod, are yet to contact their family or friends.
It was a New York Times photograph of rescuers pulling Abin out of a mount of concrete which helped the family get in touch with Abin. Abin's relatives managed to contact the freelance photographer, Thomas Nybo, and he told them that Abin was rescued after much effort and was safe in the hospital.
Abin later called home and spoke to his brother Ajun at 2.30am on Sunday. He said that he was sitting in his sixth floor room of the Budget Multiplex Hotel at Thamel, 5km from Kathmandu airport, when the disaster struck.
"Abin said he was alone and Deepak and Irshad had gone out. The hotel shook violently and then completely collapsed, trapping him under the mount of concrete," Ajun said. "The first thing he asked crying was whether his two friends were safe," Ajun added.
Recounting the rescue of Abin in CNN, Nybo said that the hotel had completely collapsed. "When I reached the spot, a group of tourists were gathered around a collapsed wall. I asked if anyone was alive and they said they can hear a voice from beneath a thick concrete wall. I could see him and talked to him and brought him water. It took over two hours for us to break through the steel reinforced concrete wall using hammers and pick axes to pull him out alive," said Nybo.
The three doctors were batch mates of the MBBS batch which passed out of the Kozhikode Medical College in December 2013. They are working in government hospitals in Wayanad. Abin and Irshad are working at the district hospital at Mananthavady, and Deepak with the PHC at Edavaka nearby and are staying in a single house.
Abin has secured admission to the MD radio-diagnosis course at the Calcutta Government Medical College, Deepak for MD in radio therapy at the Tata Institute in Mumbai and Irshad for MD in pediatrics at the Dibrugarh Medical College.
Deepak's father Thomas K said that he has got information from Norka that rescuers have sighted Deepak and Irshad. "But we are yet to confirm it and establish direct contact with them," he said.
Teen girl returns safe
Aparna Roy, a Class 8 student of St Joseph's School at Pulloorampara in Kozhikode district and a member of India's under-14 girls' football team was among those who were brought back to New Delhi in an IAF flight on Sunday evening. The team, that was taking part in an Asian Football Confederation tournament, had a miraculous escape.
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