COVID-19 lockdown: 15-year-old girl cycles 1,200 kms to bring father home from Gurugram to Bihar

Kumari, a lion-hearted 15-year-old, cycled all the way from Gurugram in Haryana to Bihar's Darbhanga district with her incapacitated father Mohan Paswan seated on the carrier.
Jyoti Kumari with her father Mohan Paswan. (Photo|EPS)
Jyoti Kumari with her father Mohan Paswan. (Photo|EPS)

PATNA: When there is a will, there is a way. Proving it true once again, 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari of Darbhanga brought her ailing father by bicycle from Gurgaon in Haryana to Darbhanga in Bihar on Tuesday.

When her father found no way to return to Bihar amid the lockdown after being rendered jobless, eigth-grade pass Jyoti Kumari gave him hope him saying: "Chinta na kare mai hoon na"(Don't worry, I'm here)" and took him on a bicycle.

Jyoti asked her father sit on the rear side carrier of bicycle and started peddling it with indomitable determination. She said, "I remembered God just fir a few seconds and set off with my ailing father to return our ghar(home) riding on a bicycle."

She covered  a thousand kilometers from Gurugram in Haryana in seven days and reached Darbhanga on Tuesday. She counted that around  100 to 150 kilometers were covered by bicycle with her father in a day. "Wherever I felt exhausted, stopped, washed the face with water being carried in a plastic bottle and gave some biscuits and water to father and again set off towards destination - Darbhanga," she said.

She recalled that trust of his father reposed in her during journey by a bicycle kept her determined and going on throughout the way. When there was too much fatigue, she used to sit on the road and get some rest. Braving against all odds en route, Jyoti brought her father to his home district without losing courage.

She recalled with tears in her eyes that she had to remain hungry for two days but fed her father with whatever she had carried with. "In many places, some people moved at our miserable condition or seeing me riding a bicycle with an old age man,came forward and helped with water and some  food," she said, adding that her father Mohan Paswan is a source of strength to her.

She has been quarantined with her father and become popular as "Shravan Kumari" of Darbhanga. Upon knowing about her tale of grit and gut, Darbhanga DM Dr Tyagarajan SM sent an official to the house of Jyoti Kumari at Siruhulia and assured to provide all helps.

Jyoti aspires to study further and the Darbhanga district administration has assured her to help in further study. "At this time, these families are currently getting the benefit of some government benefits, and after this, all government facilities will be provided according to the need," the DM said.

Meanwhile, she has been felicitated by a local social organization namely Dr Prabhaat Foundation with a title of "Virangana Mithila Ke".

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The New Indian Express
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