1,300km on scooter from J’khand to MP for pregnant wife’s exam

1,300km on scooter from J’khand to MP for pregnant wife’s exam

P.Naveen@timesgroup.com

Bhopal  04.09.2020

 Let’s go, she said. And they did.

Battling floods, torrential downpour and rain-battered roads, a couple from Jharkhand drove 1,300km on scooter, the pregnant wife sitting pillion, so that she could appear for her second-year exam for a diploma in elementary education in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.

With one raincoat to share, Dasrath and Soni Manjhi set off from Jharkhand’s Gantatola village on August 28. Soni is seven months pregnant, and Dasrath was unwilling to risk travelling such a long distance by scooter — that too in peak monsoon — but she was determined not to miss a year.

“I am a non-matric school dropout. She has completed her first year. I want her to build her career, follow her dream. She will become a teacher once she completes the course, and we can give a better future to the one who will come into our life in two months,” Dasrath said.

“I can face any situation with the support of my husband,” said the braveheart mother-to-be. They have been married for nine months.

Dasrath, 37, works with a catering firm. “Trains aren’t running, and taxis asked for ₹25,000 to ₹30,000. We couldn’t afford it. This exam was important for her, so we decided to go by road,” Dasrath told TOI over phone on Thursday while Soni wrote her exam at Padma College in Gwalior. The centre was allotted to her at random.

They reached Gwalior on August 30 and word trickled out on Wednesday night.

“I have been flooded with calls since this morning. One call was apparently from the chief minister’s office. I was told that the MP government will help us with a return flight to Delhi and further transportation to our village in Jharkhand. They will send our scooter by railway parcel. That is more than we can ask for. We are overwhelmed,” said Dasrath.

Full report on www.toi.in

AGAINST ALL ODDS: Dasrath and Soni Manjhi