Bicycle To A Brand New Bike - 1.9 Lakhs Raised For Zomato Delivery Boy By 18-year-old Teen

If you were in doubt of the power of the wide world of the internet and its people. This story here will show you just how kind people can be. This heart warming tale comes from the Bhilwara city from Rajasthan.

Originally hailing from the depths of Sanwar, a small village in Haryana, is hardworking Durga Shankar Meena. For 12 long years, Durga Shankar fulfilled his duties being employed as a schoolteacher in a private school and not long after, the lockdown restrictions kicked in and so did unemployment. A man in such a situation had nothing to aid him and find another way to make a living.

Durga Shankar had completed in education till grade 10 in a private school. After this, he started his teaching career taking classes for kids from grades 5^th to 10^th. He started with barely INR 1200 as a salary when he first started which gradually increased and towards the end of his employment, he was making INR 10,000 per month. This went on for 12 years until the fateful March 2020 when he lost his job. For over a year, he survived on his savings and after that he had to take up a personal loan of INR 40,000, this money also started to run out and he sought out to move to Bhilwara in Rajasthan.

His family was also torn apart, his father had passed away and his mother left soon after being married. There still was an ancestral home that belonged to his family, however, that too had to be given up as he was bankrupt and so a fair enough compensation for the home was what he got. Even so, the house was as is didn’t seem like a good place to live in and so decisions had to be made and he gave it up.

Without his parents or any siblings and no one to call family, he couldn’t even get married. Soon after he came to Bhilwara, Rajasthan around 7 months back and a few months after which he started his job at Zomato, as a delivery boy. It was good enough to keep his mouth fed and as for a home, he didn’t have one, so he would sleep in the restaurant itself, wherever he could find a place to lay his weary head on.

Working as a delivery boy at Zomato was surely not made easy, it was risky with the pandemic making door to door deliveries. With a bicycle to travel around in the scorching heat and barely any food in his belly, times were tough for Durga Shankar. Money being barely there, he spent countless nights sleeping on the road or in restaurants.

Living under such circumstances, his paths crossed with teenager, Aditya Sharma, 18-years-old and who happened to order a cold drink through Zomato. It was barely a week ago on 11^th of April and the sun as you know it, was soaring high and sweating everyone under it. In a temperature as high as 40 degrees, on this summer afternoon at 2, Durga Shankar bought over Sharma’s order and that too on time.

This was when Sharma got curious and had a chat with Durga Shankar and was made aware of Shankar’s financial condition. Sharma was keen and wanted to help Shankar in any way he could and so before he left, he took his phone number. That along with some help from Zomato, Aditya got more information on Durga Shankar.

Aditya decided to somehow manage to get Durga Shankar a bike to travel and make his deliveries as a means to make his job easier. He knew he alone couldn’t probably make it happen. This is when he took the internet by storm. Being internet savvy and a member on social media site, Twitter, Aditya posted a tweet at 4pm, explaining Durga Shankar’s work and circumstances and added a photo of him as well. He wanted to somehow crowd fund a sum of INR 75,000 that would help covers the expenses for a bike. Retweets started coming along and so did help.

After a mere 2 and a half hours, a total crowd donation of 1.9 lakhs was received. The situation turned into one where people had to be asked to stop helping any further as the goal was already met and crossed way beyond.

Aditya then contacted Durga Shankar and let him know he great news. He took Durga Shankar to a bike showroom and got him a bike worth INR 90,000. Durga Shankar was left with tears welled up in his eyes as he was handed over the keys to the brand new ‘Splendor’ bike. With the money that would be left over, Durga Shankar would be repaying his loan. Aditya took picture with Durga Shankar on his newly purchased bike and posted them on social media for people to see the glory of the help they offered.

Indeed a ‘Splendid’ moment for Durga Shankar, which he surely won’t  forget in a lifetime!