Express News Service
BALASORE: Tears welled up in the eyes of Basanti as she met her daughter, whom she had taken for dead, for the first time in 25 years. Her daughter Gitarani Das, who went missing two and half decades back, returned home at Gazipur village near Chandaneswar under Bhograi block on Wednesday.
It was celebration time in the family as her mother and brother welcomed her, but one person who stood aloof in a corner was her son Chandan, now all of 26 years and married. Chandan was meeting his mother for the first time after she had left him with his grandmother while he was still an infant.
According to family sources, Gitarani used to work as a domestic help in Cuttack. There she married a youth and the couple had a son. Cheated by her husband, Gitarani returned home around two years later with her son and left him under the care of her mother and brother. She returned to Cuttack and ever since there has been no trace of her, said her mother. After their efforts to search Gitarani failed, her family members started believing that Das had died as there was no communication from her side.
On her return, the family learnt that Gitarani had lost her mental stability after being cheated by her husband, and somehow reached Kerala. There she worked as a domestic help in several houses.
Members of a Kozhikode-based NGO in Kerala rescued and shifted her to a shelter home. The NGO helped Gitarani reunite with her family after she regained memory recently.
She informed the NGO about her family and their address following which it they contacted Talsari Marine police station and IIC Santosh Kumar Behera, who informed her family. As her family expressed their financial inability to being her back home the NGO escorted her to her house. Back home, Gitarani could recognise her mother and brother.
Having spent several years in Kerala she forgot Odia language and could only speak Hindi and Malayalam. However, her family feels that she has fully recovered now. Surprisingly, Gita wants to return to Kerala as she is finding it difficult to adjust with her family and the surroundings.
