Udupi: Happy Reunion for 6-year-old After Missing Father Returns
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Jan 7: It was a happy reunion for six-year-old Sumit, who had been desperately searching for his father after they got separated while returning from pilgrimage to Sabarimala.
Sumit had got down from the train while on Sabarimala pilgrimage at Vadagara railway station after his father went missing, and had been sheltered in an orphanage in Kozhikode. Late on Friday January 6, he was brought back home by his mother Sharada and uncle Dayanand. The family had a happy reunion as the boy’s father, Ganesh, also had returned safely home on Friday afternoon.
Ganesh, who had left with seven other pilgrims including his son, Sumit, on January 1 for Sabarimala, had got separated from his son just before the train was to reach Vadagara station. Ganesh was found to have fallen near the railway tracks with injuries to his face, and was admitted into Kozhikode Medical College Hospital by locals. Once recovered, he recollected the fact that his son had gone missing and immediately started towards his native place.
Meanwhile, Sharada, who began her journey to Kozhikode with six relatives after learning about the condition her son was in through newspapers, reached there in the afternoon. After finding her son at the orphanage, she started her journey back home with Sumit. On reaching home, she and Sumit found that Ganesh had reached home by train and bus on Friday afternoon. It is gathered that he had no money, but some of the locals understood his condition and lent him money.
Ganesh said that he remembers that there was some tussle inside the train and that he was trying to save his son from the melee. He says he does not know what happened thereafter. “When I regained consciousness, I was in the hospital, and the police there were abusing me in Malayalam. After I remembered my son, I tried to move out from there twice, but failed. In my third attempt, I succeeded in slipping out of the hospital and reaching home,” he said.
Ganesh said this was his eighth pilgrimage to Sabarimala, and that this time he had chosen to take his younger son for the pilgrimage. He revealed that this was the first such experience for him in all these pilgrimages, and thanked the Lord for saving his son from the ordeal created out of the above unexpected incident.