What is it that makes a person throw all worries away and so desperate to walk miles and miles to reach their destination in tragic times. Is it the hope of retreating to a place that a person imagines to be his or her “home”? Is it because the person, left penniless and hopeless by the bad times, is completely convinced to find there people with whom they share the bond of trust and unconditional affection? That’s the place and those are the people they trust will protect them from all pecuniary difficulties and help them in weathering all seasonal changes.
We can excercise certain control over the trajectory of our life, but at the end, unfortunately, it can transform unimaginably due to some unforseen hardships and events. Some hardships are of our own making and some are unannounced and uninvited reprimandations of the nature, such as epidemics and disaster. During such life-changing events, we get surrounded by conditions, situations and folks beyond our imagination. And, then we are thrown to informidable challenges and excruciatingly painful encumbrances capable of damaging our present and the future.
When flanked with cold and evil people during unfortunate times, our life can digress to a never chosen and imagined path. This can turn one’s world totally upside down, regrettably desolate and dystopian. I was forced to reflect upon such a sensitive and heart-rending topic because of the coronavirus pandemic that has ruthlessly forced the blue collared and have nots to abandon cities and go back to their villages by any means within their reach. And, how the classic novel “David Copperfield” played a pivotal role in helping me fully comprehend the emotions and insecurities that drive people to walk despite all odds and fears.
When David, the protagonist of the above-mentioned novel, decides to run away from his present life, bereft of learning and well being, he encounters hunger, fear, threat, and all kinds of feelings and despair moments beyond his imagination. Despite all odds, he remains as determined as a mountain to reach aunt Betsy’s place. The young David was thrown into a world that was so unsuitable and detrimental to his future that he knew that the only way he can salvage his life is by reaching aunt Betsy’s place.
He is robbed of his savings and bags and thereafter is forced by the circumstances to sell his coat and waist coat to survive his long journey to a place that he imagined to be his real home. He experiences hunger, fear and other other overwhelming emotions. He is troubled by trampers and tinkers on his way at night. He is forced to sleep on the roadside. He recounts his feeling of embarrassment and fear of death experienced during the lonely, scary and exhaustive journey to a place that was still only in his imagination. Despite losing everything, and braving all dust and rain, he is finally able reach the place that would change his life for good.
The terrifying and harrowing experience penned down by the author Charles Dickens can make anyone think and reflect about untoward circumstances that can force people of all ages to take tough decisions for their good. If you try connecting the dots, then you will understand why migrants and laborers were forced during the lockdown to take drastic measures like walking or cycling back to their home, despite not having enough food and money to survive the long journey usually undertaken by train or bus.
It’s their hopelessness that drove them to undertake such a drastic stand. The migrants have highlighted the fragility of their trust in the government and city people whom they helped in building their cities. It’s their trust in people back home who will take care of their both material and emotional needs in such a tragic time. If we put ourselves in their shoes, then we will become capable enough to understand their pain and emotions. When David is harassed by the trampers and tinkers at nights and when he cries to bargain his waist coat for money than anything else like flute, etc., it’s then we can understand that desperate times force people to take desperate measures.
Hither Kusum 'Stories and Poems' 