Four water bottles, five mobiles and a migrant family on the move

BENGALURU: A 19-year-old construction worker on Sunday led his family of seven on an arduous trek across Bengaluru.The lockdown pushed the teen to take such a drastic route. Work at his site came to a halt and his landlord asked him to leave fearing he won’t be able to pay his rent.Leaving Attibele on the southeast fringes of the city at 8.30am, Raju Chellagurki, his father, mother, sister, uncle, aunt and her one-year old daughter walked towards Goraguntepalya, 40km away on the northwest. The boy hopes to find a bus or a truck heading towards his home town, Gangavathi, Koppal, 373km from Bengaluru. medium74907398Speaking to TOI, Raju said he is confident they would somehow reach home, notwithstanding the challenges that may crop up.“If we don’t get a bus or truck from Goraguntepalya, we will walk. We are hoping someone will give us a lift,” he said.Raju says he has planned everything to a tee. While the boy has been carrying a metal trunk on his head, the family members are lugging duffle bags filled with vessels and clothes. Besides the Rs 1,500 cash he managed to save, the family is using the five mobile phones they are carrying sparingly. “All five were charged last night, but only two are being used in order to conserve battery till we reach Gangavathi,” Raju asserted. medium74910703 They are carrying four water bottles. His uncle, Durgesh, purchased five masks paying Rs 750 before setting out. Asked why he is risking the little he and his family have to head back home, Raju says, “There will be somebody to care for us in Gangavathi. Who cares for us in this city? None.”“The owner of the building told us not to stay as without jobs we won’t be able to pay rent. He politely dropped us on Attibele Main Road and asked us to figure our way home,” Raju said. “We cannot blame the owner completely, he also needs to run his family,” Durgesh added.Raju, his father, and uncle worked at a construction site, while his mother and sister are domestic helps. His aunt took care of their home and her baby.We stopped at least six times because carrying the child and walking isn’t easy. The kid tends to get frustrated sitting on our shoulders,” said Parvathamma, Raju’s aunt.“The government does not care about us. They are worried about stopping the disease, not about the jobs we will lose and the rations we won’t be able to buy,” Gangamma, Raju’s mother, said as she broke down.Migrant workers are dodging cops to head homeNOIDA: From trudging along kuchcha roads to walking through forested stretches, migrant workers and their families continued to leave in numbers on Monday despite the borders being sealed and the Delhi and UP government creating shelters to house them.On their way to places like Ayodhya, Kannauj and Agra, the groups stayed off expressways as far as possible to dodge the police. They got on to the Yamuna Expressway miles after the border. Many of them were seen travelling in carts, and not on foot like the waves of workers who got out before them, probably aware that special buses would no longer be sent to pick them up. At points where cops stopped them, they pleaded with folded hands to be allowed to pass. A group of six told TOI they had travelled over 380km from Chandigarh on foot and taking turns to ride the cart they had with them. large74907369Among them were 35-year-old Kanhaiya Lal and his two friends — Anwar Ali (22) and Satyam (19). Vegetable vendors in Chandigarh, they were headed for their home in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. They said they had reached the Jewar toll plaza via Sonipat, Panipat, Malikpur, Dadri and Kasna road. medium74907786“What do we do? We can’t die of hunger. At our village in Kannauj, we won’t have to worry about food at least. We have travelled all the way from Chandigarh so that we can go to Agra. From there, we’ll manage somehow to travel to Kannauj,” said Kanhaiya Lal.The group has been travelling for the past five days. Another group of bangle sellers from Chandigarh had been taking the same route because 12 others had managed to reach Kannauj using the same path — which involves an arduous trek through forested areas and internal village roads.“We were stopped at many places in between. But we pleaded with cops to let us go. To dodge the police, we have been making our way though jungles and villages. We first reached Sonipat, from where we travelled to the Malikpur border and then Dadri. When we reached Pari Chowk, the police stopped us and didn’t let us move towards the Yamuna Expressway. So, we took the Kasna road and eventually reached the expressway,” said Vimlesh Kumar (25). 74907341Chote Lal, a cobbler from Himachal Pradesh, had reached Uttar Pradesh hitching rides from truck drivers and walking. While trudging towards the expressway, he managed to find space in a truck that was already carrying 20 other migrant workers to Agra. “We work for a contractor in Noida Sector 26. A media van gave us lift till Pari Chowk. From there, we found two trucks that were transporting vegetables. They dropped us here. This is how we managed to reach Agra,” one of the labourers in the truck said.Migrant trudges home despite hurdlesINDORE: Told at the state border that only those walking on the road would be allowed any further, a migrant worker cut off the plaster from his fractured leg and began hobbling his way back home. medium74908024 Bhawarlal has over 240kms of agony left before he can get to his home in Rajasthan. Pictures of him sitting on the road and cutting off his plaster went viral. Bhawarlal is going from Pipariya in MP’s Hoshangabad district to Baran in Rajasthan.“I have come this far (500km) in a vehicle and am desperate to reach my family and hometown. I realise police have stopped the movement of people on the border as a security measure, but I had no option. I cut the plaster and decided to walk to my native place, around 242km away,” he said. In a matter of fact way, he explained: “The plaster weighs over 2kg. I can limp better without it.” 'Virus won't kill, being jobless will'Kamal Singh is jobless and homeless. Tears roll down his cheeks, but there is still a spark of determination in his eyes. For the moment, he is not worried about coronavirus, the lockdown or even the sealing of inter-state borders. All he wants is to safely take his wife Jyoti Devi and 4-year-old son David to their Etawah home in Uttar Pradesh. medium74907422On a mission to cover a distance of 1,100 km, passing through three states — Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — they are still 400km away from home.A house painter at Chandoria in Ahmedabad who earned around Rs 12,000 a month, he along with his wife and kid have already covered almost 680 km from his workplace to Jaipur mostly on foot barring a few lifts in trucks and tempos here and there in the last three days. medium74907680 Asked why he is crying, Kamal said, “I am worried about my son. He is just a kid and has to go through all this. I am not worried about myself. All that matters to me is the well-being of my wife and son. I have to get them home without harm. The virus won’t kill us, joblessness will,” said Kamal, while talking to TOI from Jaipur.He is aware that such a reverse migration could bring the pandemic from cities to villages where healthcare facilities are grossly inadequate. “We started from Ahmedabad at 10am yesterday (Saturday). On the way we took rides on tempos, small trucks and buses and walked the rest of the distance. We reached Jaipur this morning. Since 8am, we have been walking. From here, I will go to Agra and head towards my village Pali Khurd in Etawah. We ate whatever we got on the way. If we manage to get any vehicle, we will board it-…Let’s see…I am not left with a single penny,” he said inconsolably.The only saving grace was that they did not go hungry, thanks to various NGOs who are on the job of feeding thousands of migrant workers to their best of capacity. large74910495“The lockdown snatched my job. I took a loan of Rs 1,000 from my contractor but now I am penniless and we are still around 400 km away from home. There were around 20 of us who were working as painters. All have left Ahmedabad,” he said. “My kid has also been walking with us for miles. I want to carry him on my shoulders but I have a heavy bag which I need to carry. That’s our only possession. I just can’t hold my tears seeing my son trudge along with us,” he said.Jyoti Devi is shattered too. She is worried on what the future has in store for them. “It was an okay job. We were happy and satisfied. I don’t know from where this virus hit us leading to this lockdown,” she said.Like Kamal, her only worry is also about their son. “He has been walking without any complaints. Why is God so cruel,” she complained. So what’s next? Kamal doesn’t have any answers. For the time being, getting back home is his only target. “Let’s see. I can’t tell you what’s in store.Untitled Carousel 74870868