 The distance was around 40 kilometres from Gurgaon's skyscrapers and the bus terminal at the border of the national capital and Uttar Pradesh. The roads were never as empty. The country and the mega-police had been locked down. It would have taken barely half an hour to cover the distance but for the police checkpoints every five kilometres or so. Small and large groups trudged along the deserted highways resting at places where there was shade. All were poor. Women, men and children on their shoulders, the young and the elderly. The cops told them to go back. Back where? Which home? What job? Where were they going? To homes hundreds of kilometres away. Jhansi, Rewa and Guna in Mandir Pradesh. Many were from Uttar Pradesh. Agra and Aligarh. Barely Banda and Banaras. Eta and Etawa. Gonda and Harpur. Lucknow, Kanpur and Unnau. They were happy that along the way they got water or a bun of sweet bread. Destination? The interstate bus terminus named Anand Vihar. There was no joy however. On one side of the road, the bus atta was eerily empty. The teaming hundreds of thousands on the other side of the road had been made to squat on the ground. The young officer from the Indian Administrative Service held a megaphone and read out names of the destinations. There was a scramble to stand in queue. Each and every vehicle had a deli number plate. Many were tourist buses but there were no tourists. Conspicuous by their absence were buses from Uttar Pradesh. On the way back, the radio crackled. The Sanskrit translation of the Prime Minister's monkey bath was being read out. Narendra Modi apologised profusely to the people of India for putting them to such hardship on account of the corona virus. He had no option. He praised the everyday heroes, nurses and doctors. Not a word was spoken about the hundreds of thousands who had embarked on the longest walk of their lives.