Bhopal: She is over 75. Yet, she is strong and bold. When the country fought the corona pandemic, she spent 11 weeks at an auto stop in Kolar, Bhopal.
As her relatives doffed her, Jaswanta Deen fought loneliness as well as fear of corona. She won both.
With Rs 400 in her hand and a little help from the volunteers, she has now safely reached her little abode in Jabalpur medical College.
Jaswanta had come to the capital city prior to lockdown to visit her sick sister-in-law in Kolar.
Unfortunately, her sister died of illness and the government imposed lockdown soon after. The family she came to visit shooed her away amid lockdown. They could not bear the cost of one extra life having lost their jobs.
The woman, left to her own self, had nowhere to go in the city. Nevertheless, she decided to help herself and reached Kolar auto stand. She found out that the government had banned the public transport as well.
Jaswanta told Free Press that her hope to reach her homeland shattered to the news of banned public transport.
Dismayed by the way her relatives acted, she decided to spend the lockdown at the auto-stand. She survived on the food that social service organizations offered to her twice a day.
Living in the autumn of her live, she had lost her teeth making it impossible for her to chew. The children were generous enough to provide her Daliya that she could digest without chewing, she said.
They told her that the lockdown would end soon and she could go to her home. But it kept extending one after another until the first week of June.
An auto-driver on Tuesday told her that trains have begun galloping on the tracks as the government has relaxed the lockdown.
Jaswanta said her happiness knew no bounds when the driver offered to take her to the railway station. Despite being helpless, she did not compromise with her dignity and paid him Rs 100 for taking her to Habibganj railway station.
She decided to get fresh before heading towards her hometown. She reached the washroom in the waiting room. To her worse luck, she slipped over the water spilled on the floor and hit her head inviting internal injury.
She sat down waiting to relieve her pain when a group of volunteers from a social service group, Aawaz, landed there to her assistance. They offered her food, water and tea and a spray for the wound. They talked to the woman and offered her help.
Jaswanta has two sons, one of whom is missing for years. She does not even know if he is alive. Her second son built himself and his wife a new home and left his mother on her own.
The woman is a retired staff nurse from Jabalpur Medical College and has served the hospital for years. The hospital management showing a humane side had allowed her to stay in one of the staff-quarters despite her retirement.
Learning that she had nobody she could call family, three students working as volunteers at Habibganj railway station, decided to help Jaswanta with all their might.
They bought her tickets to Jabalpur, which she paid for keeping her dignity alive. The volunteers Rupal Saxena, Avinash Chouhan and Rohit Rajak helped her board the train to Jablapur at 5.40pm.
With Rs 130 in her hand she waved good-bye to her 11-week-long struggle in Bhopal and advanced to her hometown.
