Odisha youth pedals 1,700 km to reach home

Left without a job after the lockdown, he cycled across four States over 7 days

12/04/2020, SATYASUNDAR BARIK,BHUBANESWAR

Dependable wheels: Mahesh Jena covered close to 200 km daily. Special Arrangement

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 he cycled 1,700 km across the country from Maharashtra to reach home.

“The seven-day journey was easier than tackling 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.

Mr. Jena was working in an iron casting facility in the Sangli Miraj MIDC Industrial Area in Maharashtra, earning ₹15,000 a month. Soon after the lockdown was announced late on March 24, there was talk that the unit would remain closed for three months. Mr. Jena needed at least ₹6,000 to pay for accommodation and food, but had just ₹3,000 with him.

Matter of survival

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,” he said.

“On April 1, I set out. Though I did not have a map, I remembered the names of major stations during my train journey here,” said the youth.

On the week-long, cross-country ride, Mr. Jena made most of the cool, pre-dawn hours, cycling till lunch before taking a break. 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.

And so Mr. Jena continued pedalling — from Solapur to Hyderabad, then Vijayawada through Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam, before entering Odisha via Ganjam, cycling almost 16 hours a day. “Heat exhaustion was taking a toll, but it did not distract me. I was determined to reach home,” Mr. Jena said.

He reached Jajpur late on April 7 only to be stopped by villagers, who were reluctant to allow him in without a check-up. They informed the district administration, and he was sent to a quarantine centre at a school in Bichitrapur.