CHENNAI: Ananta Das had lived in Chennai for six months but it was on foot, a backpack strapped on, guided by Google Maps, on May 22 that he saw the city for the first time. “But I didn’t really see anything,” the 19-year-old explained to New Indian Express, over a month later. After all, he wasn’t a tourist navigating the capital. He was a migrant worker trying to make his way home from Siruseri to his village in Kalahandi, Odisha. Yet, seven weeks later, on July 10, he was back at work at Siruseri, bemused by the attention. His employer M R Sarangi had sprung for a Rs 7,000 flight ticket after Ananta called him asking if he could return.
“I left because five friends from my village working in other districts had gone home. I was afraid. But I asked to come back because I need the money for my family,” he smiled.
“He called asking for help so I said ok I’ll book a ticket,” Sarangi said.
At the time Ananta and his Siruseri neighbour, 45-year-old Suresh Kumar, were embarking on their 1200-km journey, thousands of migrants thronging the Chennai-Kolkata highway to head home were being sent back from the Andhra border, some after being beaten.
Chennai Corporation said it has since sent 1.35 lakh migrants home by 100 trains. “At the peak, we housed 35,000 migrants in our shelters,” Corporation deputy commissioner (revenue & finance) Meghanath Reddy said. “Now only 60 people are left,” he said. Ananta is among the fortunate few. Despite their best laid plans, Suresh and he did not have to walk back.
On the night of May 22, as he and Suresh had completed some 30-km of their journey, they were spotted on Casa Major Road in Egmore by Sudha Ramamoorthy, a disability rights activist, staying at reporter Ranjitha Gunasekaran’s house during the lockdown. She brought them home, provided them dinner and, with the help of photographer Debadatta Mallick (an Odisha native), tried to convince them against walking to the highway. They will beat you at the border, she argued as Mallick showed them videos from the spot.
Initially, Ananta was stubborn, eyes filling with tears as he feared Ramamoorthy would not let him go home, perched at the edge of his seat for the first hour. Although Suresh was amenable to Ramamoorthy’s offer of help, Ananta relented only after four hours. Finally it was agreed that the duo would stay at a Corporation shelter if Ramamoorthy assured them she would get them home. By May 25, Ramamoorthy had found a private bus operator willing to make the journey and found a sponsor for tickets that Mallick had negotiated down to Rs 7,500 for both men. Before the bus left that afternoon, Ananta, now relaxed, demanded a selfie with his benefactors.
“It is only when I got on the bus that I called my parents and told them I was coming home,” he recalled. “I wanted to be sure.”
The third of four brothers from an agricultural household, Ananta, who has completed his Plus Two, came to Chennai to help his family. He arrived late one night at Central station and was whisked off to Siruseri. He never saw the beach, nor went for a movie before the lockdown, limited by language and resources. “We like it here. I now understand a bit of Tamil also. We enjoy watching Tamil movies dubbed in Hindi on the phone,” he grinned. At Siruseri, he works for Sarangi’s family business. Sarangi, who hails from Ananta’s village, described him as a “smart, trustworthy boy”. “He wanted to leave. We said we will send you once the trains are running. One day, he asked for money to make purchases, said he was going to the market, and left,” Sarangi recalled, hastening to add that he was a “good boy”.
“He called later that day and apologised for leaving.”
Sarangi works at a security company and has lived in Chennai from 2001. He rents out space at three apartment complexes in Siruseri and runs provision and vegetable shops out of them. Through the lockdown, his service proved invaluable, according to the security staff at one of the complexes. “Residents didn’t have to step out. They made sure everything was available,” a security officer said. Ananta and his Chennai roommate Umakanth, who hails from Cuttack, package the provisions and run the shops.
On Friday afternoon, Umakanth, seated on the floor of Sarangi’s living room, a portion of which was filled with boxes of turmeric, dal, rice, shovelled sugar from a large mound into smaller packets while Ananta wrote the quantity on each packet with a black marker. Sagarika Misra, Sarangi’s wife, supervised while the couple’s son attended an online class in the background.
Ananta earns Rs 15,000 a month, of which Rs 1,000 goes towards his rent. Umakanth and he share a one-bedroom flat in the same building as Sarangi. He sends at least Rs 10,000 home each month.
On their arrival in Odisha on May 26, Suresh and he were sent to government quarantine at Kalahandi. While there, he dodged his family’s calls (“I didn’t want to speak to them until I was sure I didn’t have Covid-19”), but at Ramamoorthy’s request spoke to three other anxious migrants trying to leave Tamil Nadu.
“He told them to trust us to get them home. He even made a small video for us to share with migrants,” she said.
After two weeks, Ananta and Suresh were sent to their villages for another week in home quarantine. Ananta returned to his mother’s tears and his brothers’ questions.
“My mother was happy to see me. My brothers wanted to know how I had come home. My father asked why I had come.”
Yet, just about a month later, he dialled Sarangi, asking if he could return.
“I needed to support my family,” he explained.
Ramamoorthy heard from him, out of the blue, one day towards the end of June.
“Ananta just called and said he’s at the airport and he’s coming back!” she told friends.
Ananta wasn’t fazed by his first experience flying, though he admitted to taking a few photos onboard. “I was just thinking I have to earn money for my family, so I have to come back. I only got a bit nervous when the plane shuddered ahead of landing,” he said.
Umakanth said he was lonely after Ananta left but didn’t plan to go home till Odisha lifted its quarantine requirements. Ananta said one of his friends who had gone home during the crisis might also be brought back to his Tirupur workplace by flight.
Ananta remains in touch with Suresh, who is still in Odisha and has no work in Chennai to return to. A construction worker who had already gone two months without salary when they left, Suresh is now doing farm work in his village and waiting for his employer to call.