Four months after leaving the city, 49-year-old D.Murugan, who has a physical disability, left Vikravandi at 6.30 a.m. and hand-pedalled his tricycle for 11 hours to reach Chennai last week.
“My focus during the journey was: I should reach Chennai soon and safely, do any odd job and send money back for my three children. It was tough and tiring but I was determined I could do it. I took three breaks to eat and drank water to keep myself hydrated,” he says. While departing too, he had to hand-pedal all the way from Chennai to his hometown for several hours.
Murugan, who holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and master’s in sociology, now sells lemons and coconuts in his tricycle every day. “I used to work as an accountant in a club, but after the lockdown was imposed the club was shut and I don’t have any income for the last four months,” he says. That was when he had to leave Chennai, he says.
ADVERTISEMENT
Now his routine is: he hand-pedals every day for 3 km from MMDA Colony to Koyambedu to buy lemons and coconuts. “I hang them around the tricycle and also keep some on the tray. I go to the local market here and around streets to sell. If I’m lucky, I can get about ₹400-₹500 a day. It is exhausting to hand-pedal as age is slowly catching up now. I have been desperately seeking help to buy a retro-fitted scooter,” he says.
He does feel frustrated that after studying so much, he hasn’t been able to get a government job. “But I’m praying that I should at least get my old job back when the club opens,” he says.