PTI
Chennai / Saudi Arabia, Jul 9: An woman living in Saudi Arabia, who was separated from her Indian family as a young girl due to poverty, is set to be reunited with her father after 23 years.
Naseema, 31, who now leads an affluent life as the wife of a business consultant, traced her speech-impaired father Mohammed Ibrahim, who works as a cleaner in a hotel, through a detective agency.
She was separated from her family in 1984 at the age of eight and could not even remember the place of her birth.
Yet she was unable to overcome the haunting memories of her father, who used to roll beedis day and night to support the family and carry her to school on his shoulders, Naseema told reporters here over phone from Saudi Arabia.
"Not a day has passed without me shedding tears thinking about my father. Though he is speech-impaired, he expressed his love and affection for us through his deeds," she said.
Born the third daughter in a poor Muslim family in Kancheepuram, Naseema lost her mother during her birth and was brought up by her paternal grandmother.
Unable to support the children, her granny got the eldest sister married off while employing the younger ones at two different households as maids.
"I still remember the haunted look in my father's eyes when my granny took me away from our house," Naseema said.
Little Naseema was employed by a police constable couple, who treated her cruelly and inflicted injuries on her.
With the help of a laundry worker, she escaped from the place but was unable to find her way back home. She was later employed in different households, but her tale of woe continued.
Finally, she joined a Kannada Brahmin's family who treated her like their own daughter. When she grew up, she was married off by them.
But despite leading a lavish lifestyle with her husband and two children, Naseema was unable to forget her humble past and her poor father.
Moved by her tears, her husband contacted the city-based Sun Detective Intelligence Network India (P) Ltd here to trace Mohammed, the agency director R Varadaraj said.
"Though Naseema was able to provide only very little information, we followed the lead about the police couple and gathered information slowly. After several enquiries, we ultimately traced Mohammed from a hotel in Arcot in north Tami Nadu," he said.
A jubilant Naseema will soon fly down here to take her father to Saudi Arabia where her children are waiting to meet their new-found grandfather.
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