JALANDHAR: It doesn't take rocket science for Indians to disappear in the US. Or does it? In fact, such is the craze for settling abroad that they keep devising new ways to do so — from joining "bhajan mandlis" or cultural troupes to jumping into containers and even entering into fraudulent marriages.

The latest in the long list of their tricks is taking the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) route.

Four students of a school in Mahilpur village of Hoshiarpur did just that while on a trip to the American space agency.

The missing students of CBSE-affiliated Doaba Public Senior Secondary School — Sumit Sahni, Baljinder Singh, Dalbir Singh and Arshdeep Rahil — were aged between 14 and 15 years and part of a 21-member delegation, including two teachers, which left for the US on a Lufthansa flight on July 19. Three went missing in Washington the next day, saying they were going out to look for food. The fourth followed suit soon.

Interestingly, one of the teachers who accompanied them hasn't returned either. Instead, she sent a mail saying she had got married and that her leave be extended for one month.

The incident comes close on the heels of two students from a leading school in Jalandhar doing the vanishing act during an educational trip to the US.

The management of CBSE-affiliated Doaba Public Senior Secondary School in Punjab has filed a complaint with the police, saying four students went missing on an educational trip for a NASA rocket project last month. It said that Minu Sharma, the teacher who accompanied the students along with vice-principal Harpreet Kaur, has sent an email to the school authorities, seeking extension of leave.

"We've filed a complaint with the police here. Our delegation leader also informed the US homeland security and the Indian embassy about the four missing students there," said school principal Balwinder Kaur