Mangalore: German Citizen's Relentless Quest for Mother Yet to be Fulfilled

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Apr 13: Chaya (32) alias Maria Chaya Schupp has been visiting the city often since 2004, in search of her mother. She comes every time with the renewed zeal to find her, in the expectation that her quest for her mother would be fulfilled, but has been returning home disappointed.

The relentless efforts of Chaya, who lives with her foster mother, Ingrid Schupp, at Frankfurt, Germany, began with initial visits starting 2004 during which, Ingrid had accompanied her. Chaya was adopted from the home for the destitutes at Ullal, which in the past, also functioned as adoption centre.

Chaya - then and now

Chaya has also approached help from courts in finding her real mother. The present visit was the fourth since 2004, but this time too she had to return empty-handed to Mumbai on Thursday April 12.

Chaya vaguely recollects moving around Mangalore city with her mother when she was five or six years old. She says she used to converse in Kannada, and also travelled by train when young. Chaya says she does not possess any authentic record of her birth date, although one of the records mentions the same as March 24, 1976. She mentions there was a small external growth in her head when she was a year-old, and that the same had been surgically removed.

She feels she was given away because of utter poverty. She was adopted by Wolfgang Schupp and Ingrid Schupp in 1981, although this couple already had three children, because of their earnestness to do social service. She got higher education at Germany. Ingrid got separated from her husband even before her first visit to India with Chaya to search for Chaya’s natural mother.

Chaya says the centre which had given her on adoption in 1981, does not have any records about her. She has visited various sections, departments, and organizations, with the hope that she will find clinching information somewhere. But, all these efforts have so far gone down the drain.

At present, Chaya is pursuing her PhD on the subject of sex workers in Mumbai. She says she is determined to carry forward her efforts to find out the whereabouts of her mother and meet her at least once, as she is emotionally bonded with this cause, with the hope that success will be hers at last.