Hyderabad: 52-day-old among group travelling to UP on scooters

HYDERABAD: Shivani was born on March 25, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown. The little girl, who is 52 days old, is now on a 2,000 km journey from Chennai to her place in Uttar Pradesh. So far, the family of the girl has covered nearly 800 km on their way to Hyderabad and need to cover another 1,200 km to reach Lucknow.
“We had no choice. Life became difficult after lockdown,” Manish, the father of the girl, told TOI at Medchal on the city outskirts where they stopped to have food which was being served by NGOs. Along with Manish, his wife and their infant, are another dozen people, who have undertaken the journey with them. All of them have been travelling on two-wheelers and the fact that they would have to cover 2,000 km did not deter them.
Why did he take the risk with a small baby? “We quite literally were starving. The decision was to go home. It was not so easy leaving Chennai on our bikes but we managed to,” he said.
It’s been five days since they started and the journey has been demanding and the experience has not been good. “People would not allow us to rest for the night in their villages if we stopped by,” one of the workers in the group said. “When we asked people for salt or even a match box, they did not give,” another worker said. But they do not hold any grudge against the villagers.
At Medchal, on NH-44, the police, administration and NGOs told the workers, especially Manish, that it is not advisable to continue with their journey to UP on their scooter.
They said that their stay could be arranged at a function hall where they would also be given food.
They said as trains were also being organised, they could travel when that materialises. They were also told that their vehicles could be kept safe with the police and could be collected later.
The workers, however, were not inclined. “Nothing is for sure. We waited in Chennai for some arrangements but we have been neglected. We are now on our own and we will continue with our journey,” they said.