हर घर दीया जले,
हर बेटा-बेटी घर पहुँचे।

Why we are asking

Chhath is not a holiday. It is a homecoming.

For a Bihari, Chhath is the one week in the year when the whole family stands together, knee-deep in cold water, waiting for the sun. Nahay Khay, Kharna, Sandhya Arghya, Usha Arghya. Four days that a mother keeps fasting for, without even a drop of water on the last night, while she waits for her children to come home.

This year, many of our brothers and sisters working in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi are trying to go home. Trains were waitlisted months ago. And the only way left, the flight to Patna, Darbhanga or Gaya, now costs more than a month's salary for a security guard, a delivery partner, a housekeeping worker, a junior cook.

"माई फोन पर पूछती है, कब आ रहे हो? मैं कहता हूँ, देख रहा हूँ टिकट। सच बोलने की हिम्मत नहीं होती।" Ramesh, 27, works at a warehouse in Bengaluru. Home is a village near Chhapra.

We are a group of friends from Bihar living in these cities. We have made a list of people who have asked for help. We check each one. We book the ticket in their name directly, so the money goes only to the fare. Nothing else.