Home away from home: Family in Guwahati plays host to stranded Italian

It was almost as if destiny led him to a Guwahati house where he found friendship and warmth many thousand miles away from his home in Italy, says Giovanni Allegrini who is living out his days in lockdown with an Assamese family he now calls his own.

It has been 20 days since the 23-year-old Italian tourist found himself in Guwahati, quite by accident. He is hoping to extend his stay with the Sharmas, content to eat local food and plant vegetables to tide the family through the coronavirus crisis.

Allegrini, who has been in India since February 2 and has visited several places in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, reached Guwahati railway station from Patna on March 18.

The lockdown hadn't come into effect but the fear of the disease was real. He tried in vain to book a hotel. He wanted to stay in the railway retiring room but was not allowed to do so. He put out some requests about couch-surfing but no one accepted.

Someone even told him he could spend the night in a gurdwara but he was not sure how to go about it.

It was then that he met Deepak Sharma, a retired bank official, who brought him home and offered him a room in his house.

Sharma said he informed the DGP office about Allegrini's stay and also submitted his passport and visa copies to the nearest police station.

"It was evening when I saw him talking to some people. He was looking for hotels but they denied him accommodation," Sharma told PTI over the phone.

Allegrini said his decision to go to Assam was as random as his meeting with Sharma. He reached Guwahati after a 48-hour train journey and lots of requests for couch-surfing and hotel websites.

He said perhaps he was destined to stay at Sharma's place.

"I wasn't worried, I never plan anything while travelling and everything has gone well. I love to take risks. It's exciting," he said.

"He (Sharma) was the only one in Guwahati to give me shelter when I somehow, luckily, reached there right before the lockdown."
He also loves Assamese food. "Mum makes me feel like I'm having lunch and dinner at a five-star hotel. I recommend Assamese food to everyone."
He is not facing any language barrier as the Sharmas speak English. "I'm trying to do the same with Assamese, learn a few words."
Asked what to plans to do after the lockdown ends, he said, "I don't know what to do, I want to avoid going back to Italy I just want to see if I can extend my visa which expires on May 3. I'm going to apply for an extension soon."
"I was planning to visit Pakistan right after India, it's not possible at the moment though."
Allegrini has been around the world and he doesn't regret his choices. "I decided to start reporting what happens in my life and our planet on my Instagram profile."