Sonia Das rode a scooter from Pune to Jamshedpur to meet her son.
A 26-year-old woman, left jobless and homeless during the coronavirus pandemic, rode from Maharashtra to Jharkhand on a scooter to meet her son, who had not been keeping well. Sonia Das and her friend, Sabia Bano, spent five days on a two-wheeler to cover a distance of 1,800 kilometres, reports Times of India.
Ms Das was left without a job and stranded away from her family and her five-year-old son during the coronavirus lockdown. After she was forced to vacate her accommodation in Mumbai for failure to pay rent, she moved in with her friend Sabia Bano in Pune.
"I had no money, food, no job and now no room to stay. I had shifted to Sabia's place in Pune," Ms Das told Hindustan Times. When she received news that her son had fallen ill and developed a fever, she tried asking the Jharkhand government for help on Twitter but did not receive a response. With no trains between Pune and Jamshedpur, and not able to afford a flight ticket, Ms Das decided to ride a scooter to meet her son.
"I tweeted to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, called helplines of Maharashtra and Jharkhand governments but none was working. I tweeted to (actor) Sonu Sood Sir too but to no avail. Finally, I decided to return to Jamshedpur on my own and left on the night of July 20," said Ms Das to Hindustan Times.
The two friends left Pune on Monday and spent five days on the road, travelling to Jamshedpur via Mumbai. They reached the Steel City on Friday evening.
The story of Sonia Das' resilience and resolve has won praise on social media. IPS officer Dipanshu Kabra was among those who hailed her. "Meet Sonia Das, the mother who rode 1,800 km on a scooty from Pune to Jamshedpur to meet 5-year-old sick son," he wrote on Twitter.
"A big salute to her," wrote one person in the comments section.
"Brave women," another remarked.
After reaching Jamshedpur, Ms Das was able to see her family from a safe distance before she and her friend were moved to a quarantine centre.
Deputy superintendent of police Arvind Kumar told Times of India that the two tested negative for COVID-19 and have now been asked to quarantine at home. Dry ration for 30 days has also been provided to the family.