Earlier this month, an injured migrant worker named Mohan Paswan was forced to hobble home to his 15-year-old daughter and tell her that he had been badly hurt, that he had lost his job, and that there was no way for them to get home to their faraway village in India.
Mohan Paswan was forced to tell his daughter this while hobbling home on his injured leg.
The majority of people would consider the scenario they were in to be a terrible or even hopeless predicament; nevertheless, at this point in time, the entire globe is celebrating the great narrative that ensued.
Recently, Paswan and his daughter Jyoti Kumari, who is a teenager, traveled the 750 miles from their previous apartment on the outskirts of New Delhi all the way to their home village. This trip took them almost two weeks.
The fact that they cycled the entire distance on a bicycle that they had purchased with their final twenty dollars is quite astonishing. Jyoti pedaled while her father rode on the seat of the bicycle while carrying his hefty suitcase.
The tale of their tenacity and resolve has served as an example to millions of migrant workers all around the country, particularly in areas of the country where fresh coronavirus lockdowns have led to serious shortages of employment.
The majority of these laborers have been forced to make similar journeys from major cities back to their home villages, where they can be supported by their extended families; however, due to financial and logistical issues, many of them are currently stranded and unsure of what their next step should be.
Even before the epidemic began, Paswan had been experiencing a string of unfortunate events. During the month of January, he was operating a rickshaw when he was engaged in a collision with another vehicle.
His daughter, who had stopped going to school a year earlier due to the family’s financial difficulties, made the decision to travel to Delhi in order to provide medical attention to her damaged father.
As soon as the lockdown was implemented, their landlord shut off their energy and threatened to evict them from their flat.
This was because Paswan was unable to work during the lockdown. After that, Jyoti made the suggestion that they travel back to their hometown in the hamlet of Bihar.
At first, Paswan couldn’t believe it when his daughter suggested that they drive him back home together.
“I looked at my daughter and said, ‘Look, it’s not four or five kilometers that you will drag me from here,’” she recalled.
It’s 12-, 13-hundred kilometers. “In what direction will we move from here?” he said in a video that was shown on the BBC’s Hindi service.
They had saved up just enough money to purchase a bicycle because Jyoti had done a lot of cycling around their area. She was adamant that she would bring her father home in one piece.
In spite of this, Jyoti and Paswan’s trip was anything from glamorous; they frequently found themselves in a situation where they did not have enough to eat; they slept at gas stations; and they frequently relied on the goodwill of complete strangers.
Every day, the two of them covered around 100 miles of ground. Jyoti would console her anxious mother through cell phones that she had borrowed, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll get Papa home safe.”
Jyoti kept her word and she and her father made it back to their house safely. In addition to this, due to the fact that the Indian media has branded her “Jyoti the lionhearted,” the chairmain of the Cycling Federation of India, Onkar Singh, has been in touch with the young woman and strongly encouraged her to try out for the national team.
Singh was quoted as saying to The New York Times, “She possesses a terrific talent.”
According to Singh, the Cycling Federation is going to make arrangements to transport Jyoti back to New Delhi in “something nice,” such as an air-conditioned train.
Singh said with passion while expressing his appreciation for her that she could travel such a long distance with a large man “and his bags.” “She has guts,” he said.
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