Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 24
“Aisa lagta hai punarjanma ho gaya (It is like a rebirth),” says 18-year-old Parkash.
Prakash along with his two brothers Kanhaiya and Dharmendra, who had been hitch-hiking from Amritsar to reach Ballia, 1,300 km from here, finally boarded a Shramik Special train to Buxar from here Saturday morning and reached home last evening. After several months of struggle, the trio has finally met their family.
Their 40-year-old mother, who met them from a distance as per social-distancing protocol, broke down seeing her sons back home.
Parkash says, “This is our rebirth. We are happy to be back home. There was no food, no certainty. At least now we are with family. I was elated to see my mother. Our entire family came to meet us.”
The brothers are at a quarantine centre at a school in their village. They were screened at Buxar as well as Ballia. They say they will look for some work here after their quarantine is over.
With nothing to eat anymore, the three brothers, Prakash, Dharmendra and Kanhaiya, began an arduous journey on foot from Amritsar to their home town Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh, 1,318 km away, four days ago. They decided to walk to their village Noorpur with tattered ‘chappals’ and a bag with two sets of clothes. On the fourth day of their journey, they camped under the Pathankot bypass in Jalandhar.
They were accompanied by five other workers, also on way to Ballia on foot. All eight have now reached back home.
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