Amravati man regains memory after 32 years, reunited with family

Nagpur: A man in his 60s was reunited with his family by an NGO after he regained his memory after 32 years.
A native of Amravati, Pundalik Kale was missing from his village Neknandpur under the jurisdiction of the Chandur Railway police station since 1989-90. The mentally disturbed Kale, who occasionally worked as a farm labourer, had left behind his wife Nirmala and their two minor daughters. Despite efforts by his wife, Kale was untraced.
Earlier this week, Kale was reunited with his family by the Kerala-based NGO Divyakarunya Charitable and Religious Trust where he spent 18 years before recalling his past, including the names of his wife and two daughters.
In Kale’s absence, his wife raised his two daughters by working as a farm labourer. She even got them married. “Kale has grown up grandchildren,” said one of his relatives.
Chandur Railway’s senior inspector Vilas Kulkarni and his team helped the NGO zero in on Kale’s family in Neknandpur village. “We had a three decade old missing report of Kale which was closed after seven years as per the law. The case reached a happy ending as villagers welcomed Kale with open arms while his wife garlanded him and offered sweets,” said Kulkarni.
Kale is learnt to have spent around 14 years as a vagabond on the streets of Kerala’s Ernakulam before police rescued him and shifted him to the NGO where he spent 18 years before gradually regaining his memory with the help of psychiatrists.
Tony, an orphan, accompanied Kale back home from the NGO. Kale knew only his name and nothing about his roots or family. “Psychiatrists and social workers at the NGO spoke to Kale regularly to enable him to recall his past life. Gradually, he had started recalling his past, his family and native place but was confused about the state,” said Toni.
“Kale could recall the names of his family members, the name of his village, district (Amravati) and polic station, but he was confused about the name of his state. Initially, he claimed he was from Uttar Pradesh, maybe because two of his co-inmates were from that state,” said Tony, who attributed Kale’s recovery to his NGO team under founder Father George Kuttikal, trust director Shajan Kuriyakos and co-ordinator Bindhu Sebastian.
“After Kale started recalling things, he was desperate to meet his wife and daughters,” added Tony.
The NGO first went to UP and some other places to hand over a few inmates to their families. They too had recalled their past while staying at the rehab centre. “We were searching for the name of Kale’s village but it was nowhere to be found in and around UP. After someone suggested that I try Maharashtra as Amravati is a place near Nagpur, I brought Kale to Nagpur in mid-July,” said Tony.
Kale was taken to a barber in Nagpur where the owner was requested to speak to him. “At the barber’s shop, we heard Kale speaking in fluent Marathi for the first time. At the NGO, he spoke mostly in Hindi,” said Tony who later approached the Chandur Railway police station’s senior inspector Kulkarni who did the rest.
Kulkarni said he had to first verify the details of the missing case and contact the family. “We first ensured that the family was ready to accept the man after all these years. It was only after we were convinced that the man would be accepted that we went ahead. In the end, it was a happy and emotional reunion,” he said.
Noted psychiatrist Dr Sudhir Bhave said Kale may have a mental ailment but it’s schizophrenia patients who generally exhibit such traits. “Under professional guidance and treatment, many patients do recall their past and background in due course of time but three decades is a rare case,” said Dr Bhave.