Egyptian dream sours for corporate wives

MUMBAI: When Sucheta Verma got on the flight to Cairo, along with her husband and his colleagues who were headed for a business conference, her to-do list was set. But just one day into the trip, the entire Tata Steel team faced house arrest of sorts. "We couldn't leave the hotel because of the situation outside. Though there was not much violence to witness, we were not allowed to leave the hotel," Verma said.

There are other companies which organized conferences in Cairo in recent days, many of which could not be completed. While their employees experienced a failed trip in business terms, the spouses had it worse, confined to the boring interiors of hotels.

"Our husbands went ahead with their conference in the hotel while we checked the unrest outside on televisions sets in our rooms. I could have done this sitting in my house in Mumbai," said Priya Raj, a disappointed wife.

Already depressed at not having had the opportunity to go shopping and sightseeing, they were left even more so because they could not even buy chocolates for their children.

"My son has just started to learn about the cultures of various countries and I was really hoping to show him videos I would shoot of Egyptian mummies. None of this happened as we were in our hotel rooms all the time," said Rashmi Shah, who reached Cairo on January 27. "At the airport, I was hoping to pick some stuff for my son, but realized all the shops had shut and there was no room for anyone.

"A curfew started in Cairo on Friday and on Sunday, we left straight for the airport where we remained stranded for 12 hours."

S Shantaram, an employee of Kothari Industrial Corporation, Chennai, was hoping to come back from his trip with fond memories of Egypt. "For the first time, I saw military tanks on the road and people hiding in their houses. After all the eeriness we witnessed on the roads, the scene at the Cairo airport was different- chaotic," he said. "I will now head home to Chennai from Mumbai. Memories are still memories. The Egypt trip will always remain my most memorable."