Bengaluru: Heading home with hope and not much to bank on

Petlee Peter | TNN | May 2, 2020, 10:41 IST

Migrant workers were caught off guard after KSRTC upped fares, making travel unaffordable for many

BENGALURU: Around 9am Friday, Nagappa, who hails from Raichur, bundled up what little he owned and walked with wife and two children from his house in Vijayanagar to Banappa Park, opposite St Martha’s Hospital near Hudson Circle in the central business district.
Construction worker Nagappa reached the spot after 90 minutes. The family’s last meal was a small packet of rice and dal the previous evening. They had, like hundreds of others, flocked to the park following the Karnataka government’s announcement that migrant workers in Bengaluru would be sent to their hometowns by bus. They were stunned to hear they would have to pay three times the regular fare.
“I have a fifty-rupee note. How can I pay Rs 1,411 for this journey? I’d rather start walking to Yadgir,” said enraged mason Channabasappa. He and his wife had walked from Hoodi to the park.
Some like Vijayakumar, who hails from Nalwar in Chitapur taluk (Kalaburagi district), were desperate to head home. “My son in Nalwar was attacked by a monkey and his condition is critical. My old mother can’t do much and all hospitals in our area are closed. I’ll pay anything to get home and rush my son to the government hospital in Yadgir, ” said Vijayakumar, a tailor in Chickpet.
For hundreds waiting to get on to these buses, social distancing norms were not so important. The bitter Bengaluru experience since the lockdown has left them longing for home even if there’s not much there to look forward to. “We may not even come back. But, I’ll have my family and relatives who will help me. If all else fails, I can at least die knowing I have finally come home,” said Ramesh of Kamalapur near Ballari.
But a fellow Ballarigaru, 5-year-old Mallikarjuna of Rupanagudi surely doesn’t want to come back. “He came to meet me just before the lockdown and couldn’t return for over a month. Every night, he cries for his mother. I must somehow find him a seat. I managed to put together Rs 884 for the bus fare,” said construction worker Rukmanamma, the boy’s grandmother.
Many families thronged the playground and waited for hours to find a seat on their designated buses. They braved the heat and dust, and endured the pain of paying the steep fare. But they knew they were headed home. And that’s what mattered in the end.