Kolkata, May 20 (IANS): Even as Sherpas searched for Bengal mountaineer Piyali Basak on the steep slopes of Mt Makalu in Nepal earlier this week, a search of another kind was on over 1,000 km away at a small town along the India-Bangladesh border.
At Hingalganj in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district, a group of people were busy trying to trace the family of a mentally-challenged person of Nepali-origin who was rescued from the streets.
Both stories had happy endings. While Piyali Basak will return home to Chandernagore in West Bengal soon after becoming the first woman from the state to have summited Mt Makalu, Bir Bahadur Singh will return to his family in Nepal after three decades.
Mentally-challenged he may be, but Bir Bahadur Singh believes that his grandchildren are awaiting his arrival. His son has already reached Hingalganj to facilitate his transit to the Himalayan nation with help from the Nepal Consulate in Kolkata.
Sushanta Ghosh is a well-to-do businessman in Hingalganj. He is also the secretary of the local merchants' association. Ghosh has a passion. He keeps a lookout for vagrants and tries to reunite them with their families.
He has succeeded in his endeavour on several occasions in the past. It was a few days ago that he spotted Bir Bahadur Singh and provided him shelter. The old man spoke Nepali and gave Ghosh the names of several locations, including districts, towns and villages. Ghosh searched the net. The names were all correct, but unconnected to each other.
Finally, he got in touch with Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC) - an organisation of dedicated amateur radio operators who use their contacts and skills to reunite people with their families.
Once Biswas realised that the man was of Nepali-origin, he activated HAMs in Nepal. It didn't take them long to trace his village. Unfortunately, his house there was found locked. The villagers recognised him but had no clue about his family's whereabouts.
"We got in touch with the Nepal Consulate. The Consul General was most helpful and despatched two officials to Hingalganj. After quizzing him, the officials were sure that he is a citizen of Nepal but his family could not be traced. We got back to our friends from the HAM fraternity in Nepal once again and they intensified the search. Finally, his wife was traced. She immediately recognised her husband from the photograph we had circulated and told us how he had gone missing," Nag Biswas said.
Bir Bahadur Singh used to work in Delhi where he lived with his son. The boy studied in a school in Delhi. Over 30 years ago, Singh fell ill and started off for Kathmandu with his son. On the way, he apparently disappeared, leaving his son alone to fend for himself. His son told people the name of his school and with their help, he was reunited with his mother. The boy now works in Delhi. His wife and children live in Nepal with his mother.
"Bir Bahadur's son was overjoyed on coming to know that his father is still alive. He never doubted his father and always knew that the man must have suffered from some sort of mental illness to have left him alone. He immediately applied for leave and is now in Hingalganj. The Nepal Consulate is also making arrangements to shift Bir Bahadur Singh to Kathmandu and reunite him with his family," Nag Biswas said, having concluded yet another mission of mercy.