Sitting idle doesn’t come easy to 20-year-old Mahesh Jena, stuck at a COVID-19 isolation centre in Bichitrapur in Odisha’s Jajpur, more so because the youth has cycled 1,700 km across the country from Maharashtra to reach home.
“The seven-day journey was more comfortable than the killing the boredom here,” said Mr. Jena, who pedalled home after the nationwide lockdown on March 25 pulled down the shutters at his workplace and snapped all public transport systems.
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Mr. Jena was working in an iron casting facility in the Sangli Miraj MIDC Industrial Area in Maharashtra, earning ₹15,000 per month. Soon after the national lockdown was announced late on March 24, there was talk that the foundry unit would remain closed for another three months. Mr. Jena needed at least ₹6,000 to pay for accommodation and food, but had just ₹3,000 with him.
After remaining idle for a week, he realised that the lockdown was not likely to end soon. “All of sudden, I decided to go back home to Badasuari village in Jajpur by bicycle. It was a matter of survival,” Mr. Jena recalled.
“On April 1, I set out. Though I did not have a map, I remembered names of major railway stations during my train journey here,” said the youth.
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Some fellow villagers, who were also stranded in Sangli, warned him about the long distance, though he was used to cycling around 12 km a day to his workplace and then to a nearby hotel for food. But the situation at Sangli left him with no choice.
On the week-long, cross-country ride, Mr. Jena made most of the cool, pre-dawn hours, cycling till lunch before he took a break. The few roadside dhabas that were open for truck drivers carrying essential products provided much needed shelter. He would stop at the few, still open dhabas for a bath, lunch and a nap before getting back on his cycle. “I was averaging close to 200 km per day,” he said.
Mahesh Jena had his share of run-ins with the police. At the Maharashtra border, he was asked about the motive for his journey. But he managed to convince them by describing his amazing bicycle-ride. Photo: Special Arrangement
At the dhabas, as he narrated his journey, some t