1,240km bike ride takes carpenters home to Raj

PUNE: With no work since the lockdown was announced and a crammed living space making it difficult for them to maintain social distancing, four carpenters between 25 and 27 years of age decided to deal with the situation in their own way.
On the midnight of April 29, they set out on two motorcycles from their furniture-making site at Vadgaon Sheri on an arduous 1,240km journey by road to their native place Nagaur near Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
It took them 45 hours to reach Nagaur and another 14 days in a quarantine facility, before they could resume normal life at home.
“We took little breaks to have food or tea, but kept driving,” Vinod Khati, who took turns with his partner Laxman Singh to drive one of the bikes, told TOI over the phone after exiting the quarantine facility.
The other two, Jitendra Chavad and Kumar Pandit, rode another bike. All four are now hoping the situation normalises and they can come back to Pune.
“From Vadgaon Sheri, we proceeded to Dhule via Ahmednagar and Aurangabad to move into Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh and further drove towards Mandsaur to cross into Rajasthan. We reached Nagaur via Chittorgarh, Bhilwara and Beawar. There were many motorcycle riders along with us,” Khati said.
They spent about an hour on the Maharashtra–MP border as the police questioned them about their travel plan. “They allowed us to pass through the border check point. Some distance ahead, another MP police van drove behind us, constantly announcing on the speaker that we should not halt along the highway,” Khati added.
They were again questioned by the Rajasthan police when they crossed the Rajasthan–MP border, but were allowed to move ahead. “We kept riding our bikes and took short breaks for food or water,” he said, adding that the food was available at roadside eateries and many offered them food free of cost.
The four carpenters were working in Pune on an assignment basis. “We shifted to Pune six years ago for making furniture for houses and commercial shops and establishments.”
“My parents and other relatives stay in a small house at Nagaur. Soon after we reached, we informed our gram panchayat and the officials quarantined us for 14 days in the kindergarten of the village,” he said.
“Our quarantine is over now and we are happy to be with our family,” Khati added.