At an age when she should have been be safe at home, 15-year-old Jyoti decided to cycle 1,200 kilometers to take her father from Delhi to Darbhanga, Bihar.
She said that her biggest fear was being hit by a vehicle, which isn’t irrational considering the number of lives that have been claimed in the past few days because of road accidents. In an interview given to the Times of India, she said:
I did not feel very scared even while cycling at night as we used to see hundreds of migrants walking on the highways. Our only concern was road accidents, which fortunately we did not face.
The two bought the cycle for ₹500 and covered the distance in 6 days (May 10-May 16).
Jyoti elaborated on the struggle the two faced while trying to get back home:
We did not have much money and the landlord pressured my father either to pay or vacate the room. No one was there to help us so we decided to return to our village. We talked to a truck driver, who demanded ₹6,000 for bringing us from Delhi to Darbhanga, but we could not afford to pay the money. Finally, I asked my father to pillion ride on the bicycle bought with Rs 500 and we started for Darbhanga.
When they finally reached home, everyone was surprised that Jyoti cycled so far and brought her father home. Both of them have been quarantined for now.