Kochi: A United States citizen has appealed to the High Court to allow him to stay in Kerala for six more months even as COVID-19 is creating havoc across the globe. For, Kerala is adopting better measures to check the disease than his own country and he feels much safer here.
Theatre writer and director Terry John Converse, 74, said he moved the court because his visa would expire on May 17. The court has posted his plea till then.
“I had no choice but to move the court. The situation in the US is dangerous. India in general, and Kerala in particular, is doing better job in containing the virus than the US. That's the most important reason why I want to stay here,” he told Onmanorama.
Converse is an emeritus professor of theatre at the Washington State University. He came to Kerala's Kochi on September 28, 2019. He has conducted several theatre workshops since then. He stays at Panampilly Nagar in Kochi with the family of Charu Narayanakumar who runs the Phoenix World Theatre Group.
Two-time renewal
Though he was supposed to return by March 27, his visa got extended to April 25 for the first time following the lockdown. With the lockdown being extended to May 3, his visa was once again extended to May 17. Now he thinks it is not safe to return to the US because of the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After hearing his plea, the court issued an interim order. “It's needless to state that if in case, international flights do not start their operation by then, petitioner's visa will have to be extended beyond that period also,” read the order.
On April 16, he filed a visa extension application with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Kochi. He stated that America was leading the world in COVID-19 cases deaths and he felt far safer in India than in the US. “India and Kerala are doing a far better job controlling COVID-19 than the US,” he wrote.
Converse is not new to India. He first came to the country in 2012 on a fulbright grant and had conducted theatre workshops for the Lokdharmi theatre in Kochi. He has visited Kerala multiple times and conducted several theatre workshops.
While in residency at Lokadharmi, he also directed a dramatic adaptation of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer's short story 'The world renowned nose' (Viswavikhyathamaya Mookku) and Bernard Pomeance's 'The Elephant Man'.
Cancelled trip
He had planned a short trip to Sri Lanka a couple of weeks prior to the visa expiry with the hope of resetting it for another 180 days.
However, he cancelled the trip because of the coronavirus scare. “I did not want to get stuck in Sri Lanka. Given my age, I did not want to take the chance of catching coronavirus,” he said.
