If you are ever feeling sorry for yourself after a challenging bicycle ride, be sure to recall the following story. As reported in the New York Times article “Lionhearted Girl Bikes Dad Across India, Inspiring a Nation” by Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj, a fifteen year old migrant girl in India pedaled seven hundred miles to bring her injured father back to their home village in India during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. The Indian press seized upon this feel-good story, with headlines about Jyoti the “lionhearted.”
When it becomes a matter of survival, migrant workers will try to return to their native villages because that is where their real social safety net lies. Scholars estimate that tens of millions returned to their villages during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic lockdown, the biggest migration of human beings since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
Jyoti Kumari and her dad had almost no money and their village was half way across India. Her dad, an out of work rickshaw driver, had been injured in a traffic accident and could barely walk. Jyoti jumped on a $20 purple bike bought with the last of their savings. With her dad perched on the rear, she pedaled from the outskirts of New Delhi to their home village, seven hundred miles away.
“Don’t worry, mummy,” she reassured her mother, using a borrowed cell phone, “I will get Papa home.” Jyoti was confident on a bicycle having ridden a lot in her village. Many days they had little food. They slept at gas stations. They lived off the generosity of strangers. Jyoti said that except for one short lift on a truck, she pedaled nearly one hundred miles per day.
Jyoti got her dad home and was resting up in her village when she received a call from the Cycling Federation of India. Convinced she had the right stuff, Onkar Singh, the federation’s chairman, invited her to New Delhi for a tryout with the national team where she will do a series of cycling tests. Mr. Singh said he had been moved by how far she pedaled with a heavy person on the back. “And luggage,” Mr. Singh was quick to add. One thing was not in doubt, Mr. Singh said, “She has guts.”
The cinematic sweep of Jioti’s difficult journey captivated me. I imagined a movie similar to Danny Broyle’s “Slum Dog Millionaire.” The protagonist is a young girl named Jyoti and the story ends when she wins gold in the women’s road race in the Olympics! Who knows? Maybe it will happen!