JOIN USCOVID-19 outbreak: Bonding in times of social distancing
A dreaded thought crossed octogenarian Saligram's mind as he saw the others from his village preparing to walk to their native village in Uttar Pradesh from Delhi after the nationwide lockdown was announced
Saligram, a resident of UP's Shravasti district, about 200 kilometres from here, who had an attack of paralysis a few years back and was unable to walk, thought that he would be left behind.
After all who would want to carry along an old man at a time, when there were no buses or trains and everyone might have to walk 700 kilometres to reach home.
He was wrong.
Some enthusiastic youths from his village prepared a makeshift palanquin with the help of bamboo and bedsheet. Saligram was made to lie on the bedsheet and it was tied with the bamboo pole on both ends.
The group, that left with Saligram, comprised 65 people, including women and children. They were dropped at a place from where the Yamuna Expressway started by a truck driver.
And from there the group started walking. The youths carried the old man in the makeshift palanquin. They took turns in doing so. The group reached Lucknow on Saturday, five days after they had left Delhi.
They were resting on the highway, when senior UP IPS officer Navneet Sikera, who happened to be passing by, spotted them and stopped. He arranged food for them and also a bus to take them to Shravasti.
''We could not have left Saligram....he is from our village...we would not have been able to face others had we left him,'' said a member of the group.
All of them were daily wagers and lived together in Delhi.