A helmet, a delivery bag, and a bike weaving through Mumbai’s traffic every single day. This is the story of a woman, a mother, a wife, who took to discharge her duties as the primary breadwinner after her husband fell ill.Her decade-long journey as a food delivery rider quietly funded some of her family’s biggest milestones, from her daughter’s wedding to her son’s first car.The beautiful story of her inspiring journey, laced with immense hard work and grit, has gone viral online and stands as a shining example of how a mother’s determination.
Meet the mother who took on duties as a delivery agent and breadwinner of the family and fulfilled her children’s dreams
According to the Humans of Bombay Facebook post, the woman’s relationship with work began long before adulthood. As a child, she would finish school and head straight to a job, whether at a printing press or in a factory, describing work as simply “how life was,” rather than something she ever got to choose. She married at 19 and moved to a village with her husband, where her days became consumed by farming and raising two children, hoping they would one day have opportunities that had never come her way.
Her husband’s illness changed everything overnight
Some years later, the family moved to Mumbai after her husband found work there, and life finally seemed to be falling into place. However, that stability was short-lived; his health declined suddenly, leaving her as the family’s only earning member overnight. With few options and even fewer contacts, she decided to depend on the skill she already had, riding a two-wheeler, after someone suggested she try food delivery with Zomato.
She made a mark for herself among the male-dominated sector
Stepping into delivery work meant stepping into a heavily male-dominated space. As she recalled on Humans of Bombay, “In my first few days, I was one of the very few women riding alongside hundreds of male delivery partners. I was nervous. But every time a customer smiled and said, “Aap bahut achha kaam kar rahe ho,” it gave me the courage to keep going”.It was these small moments of encouragement from customers, whose kind words gave her the courage to keep riding day after day.What began as a single ride soon multiplied into hundreds, then thousands, over the following ten years. Those countless deliveries eventually paid for her daughter’s wedding and helped her buy her son his first car.
A home of her own is the dream still ahead
Despite achieving so much, she hasn’t stopped riding. She still wears the same helmet, carries the same delivery bag, and rides through Mumbai every day, dreaming of owning a home for her family. Until that day comes, she says she’ll simply keep riding.
