Dana Majhi, the farmer from Odisha who walked 10 km with his wife’s body in August 2016, has now bought a motorcycle, which he used to travel the same road on Tuesday, the Hindustan Times reported. The turnaround in Majhi’s fortunes came as a result of handsome amounts he got in financial aid after video clips of last year’s incident made headlines worldwide.

Since the death of his wife, the Kalahandi resident has got a house allotted to him under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Awas Yojana and has even remarried. The house is under construction. Majhi also got large sums of money from donors, including a Rs 9-lakh financial aid from Bahraini Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

He did not have a bank account earlier, but now has sizeable fixed deposits. Meanwhile, his wife is now pregnant and his three daughters get free education at a residential school in Bhubaneshwar.

This week, Majhi bought a motorcycle from a Honda showroom in Bhawanipatna.

Majhi, 16 months ago

In August 2016, Dana Majhi was seen carrying his wife’s body on foot from Bhawanipatna because he was not given a vehicle from the district hospital. The news came to light when Majhi and his 12-year-old daughter met the crew of a local television channel who then arranged for an ambulance for the remaining 50 km of his journey to Melghara village.

Majhi had said that the district hospital authorities had refused to help him take the body of Amang Dei, who died of tuberculosis, to their house, even though Odisha has a scheme that asks government hospitals to transport bodies to their families’ homes free of cost.

Just weeks later, in September, Majhi was quoted as saying that his life “has turned upside down”, after donations began coming his way.