We might have noticed a great number of missing cases in which a kid gets lost somehow in a crowdy railway station or any temple. The stories of the reunion are pretty rare, and interesting at the same time. The tales of getting back to their loved ones is something one cannot afford missing. A recent incident in Northern part of India is something that will make your day, the 25-year-old woman, who went missing from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when she was a child and accidentally landed in Mumbai, has found her family 14 years later.
Coming to the details, it is Pooja Subodh Verma, who grew up in an orphanage in adjoining Navi Mumbai, was trying to find her parents for the last few years. Back in 2003, while playing at the Ayodhya railway station, she accidentally boarded a Mumbai-bound train. Next to that, after reaching the metropolis, police spotted her and sent her to an orphanage in Nerul.
Pooja was also enrolled in a school. In 2009, Pooja started working as a domestic help with Nitin and Sunita Gaikwad, a couple living in Nerul. The only thing she can perfectly remember is the names of her parents, Subodh and Meera, brother Alok, their house in Ayodhya near the Sarayu river and a Ram temple, and that her father owned a shop of garlands and audio cassettes.
With these bits and pieces, all joined together, Nitin and local activist Girish Patil started the search for Pooja’s parents in Ayodhya by contacting Uttar Pradesh Police. Through some contacts, they approached Santosh Tiwari of the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Lucknow. After this, Tiwari assigned the task of making inquiries to his men. Police looked for men who dealt in garlands and cassettes and also went through voters’ lists in Ayodhya and surrounding places.
Many details got unearthed, and while the operation was on, Pooja herself decided to visit Ayodhya earlier this month. On reaching Ayodhya on November 5, she started searching the areas along the banks of the Sarayu, and after a few hours managed to locate her house at Naya Ghat and find her family.
And, after a while, there came a day when Pooja called Gaikwad and Patil, informing that she had found her parents. Tiwari, talking about the phone call has quoted her words, said, “We were trying our best to locate Pooja’s family members… One day I got a call from Pooja about her reunion with her parents and also spoke to her father. We are happy to hear that she has safely reached her home.”
“This is the happiest moment of my life. I got my daughter back. I don’t want anything from the almighty now,” said Pooja’s father Subodh.
Meanwhile, one of Pooja’s kin has said, “We searched for her for weeks after she went missing. As the river is close to our house, some people thought she drowned and then we stopped the search.”