Are you hungry?’: Meet Gurgaon bus conductor who walked through rain to feed 18 students

3 min readUpdated: Jul 17, 2026 03:02 PM IST

(From left to right) Bus conductor Dinesh Kumar. Gurgaon’s first major monsoon downpour brought the city to a standstill on 7 July. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)

As Gurgaon’s first major monsoon downpour brought the city to a standstill on July 7, a school bus carrying 18 students got caught in the gridlock near Hero Honda Chowk and remained stranded for nearly five hours.

Amid the honking and frustration, 46-year-old bus conductor Dinesh Kumar decided to do something simple.

Leaving the bus under the watch of two teachers, Kumar walked nearly a kilometre with an umbrella to buy 20 packets of snacks for the hungry students — paying from his own pocket.

“I asked one child, ‘are you feeling hungry?’ I could see that they were upset. I thought I must do something to bring a smile to their faces. That’s what school has taught me. If we can’t even do that, then what is the point of our jobs?” Kumar said.

The bus had left Suncity School in Sector 54 at 2.30 pm as usual. On most days, the last student is dropped home by around 3.50 pm. That day, however, the final child reached home only at 7.30 pm.

“There were 18 students from Classes I to X and two teachers on the bus. Sector 5 is the last stop. That day, we got caught in the traffic near the Hero Honda underpass after a portion of the road had caved in. We remained stuck for almost one-and-a-half hours,” Kumar said.

So, Kumar decided the children needed something to lift their spirits. “The children were very happy (seeing the snacks). The teachers, too. It’s not always about money. I would have brought even more, but the traffic started moving,” he said.

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Throughout the ordeal, Kumar also fielded 50-60 phone calls from anxious parents, reassuring them that their children were safe. “One child had started crying… I got them to speak with their parents. I told their parents safety is our priority,” Kumar said.

Days later, the gratitude continued.

“Parents messaged me personally to thank me for taking care of the children. This brought a smile to my face. If I had given up or panicked, what would have happened to the children? We must be their hope,” he said.

“A lot of children came especially to meet me. They shook my hand and said thank you. The teachers also praised me. I felt so happy. I felt like I’m succeeding at my job.”

Suncity School Director Rupa Chakravarty publicly commended Kumar, encouraging students to draw inspiration from him. In the coming days, the school was flooded with appreciative emails from parents praising him.

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The incident had unfolded during Gurgaon’s first major spell of monsoon rain this season, which crippled traffic across the city. Flooded roads and waterlogging left commuters stranded for hours and delayed school buses across several routes.

At Suncity School, at least five buses were delayed over two days.

Students travelling towards Sector 14, Golf Course Extension Road and Sohna Road were among the worst affected. Areas including Atul Kataria Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and Sheetla Mata Road bore the brunt.

Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.

Professional Background

Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.

Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.

Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.

Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.

Recent notable articles

In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.

1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.

2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.

3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.

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Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.

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