In Surat, found at last, boy fights mother of all ordeals

SURAT: Faith can move mountains, but can it get a six-year-old boy raised by his kidnapper to love his biological parents whom he has never seen? Women belonging two different faiths - one, his foster mother (the wife of the alleged kidnapper) and the other, his biological mother - are trying everything in their might to help little Prasann (name changed) transition to his new life.
Almost daily, in keeping with the court's directions, Nayna Oad brings Prasann to his biological mother Sufiya Mansuri's house so that he gets acquainted with her. On some days, Sufiya visits Nayna to play with Prasann and win his confidence.
Nayna's husband Kamlesh, who had allegedly kidnapped the child on January 5, 2017, from a community health centre in Kathor, is in judicial custody. He committed the crime after Nayna suffered multiple miscarriages, said the cops. And now it is Nayna who is trying to correct his mistake by helping Prasann get close to Sufiya.
Meanwhile, thrilled to have finally found her child, Sufiya is striving to befriend him. Every day, she hopes he will ask for a toy or an ice cream, but he does not. Prasann keeps staring at her, almost suspiciously, fiddling with the nadachhadi around his neck. When Nayna asks him to call Sufiya 'mummy', he does so obediently but visibly confused.
A tad uncomfortable with the sudden outpouring of love and attention from a woman he has not seen in all these years, he runs back to Nayna after a while, asking her to take him home.
Little does Prasann know that Mumbai residents Sufiya and her husband Mohammed Ali have thought of a new name for him - Azeez.
Nayna, on the other hand, is struggling to undo a wrong while bracing for a life without Prasann. She only hopes he is able to forgive her and her husband when he grows up. "I did not know that Kamlesh had kidnapped him. I would have asked him to return the baby to the mother had I known," she said.
Last month, Kamrej police cracked the kidnapping case and traced the child to Karjan in Vadodara. While Kamlesh and Nayna were arrested, Prasann was sent to a protection home.
In the middle of too much happening too soon, the child was terrified and refused to go to his biological parents as he did not recognize them. Meanwhile, the court granted bail to Nayna and ordered a DNA profiling of the child and his biological parents.
Nayna and Sufiya were directed by the court to ensure that the child spent time with his biological family so that he could adjust well to his new home.
"He started coming to me only recently. He sometimes calls me mummy. I am sure he will get adjusted to our home and his siblings soon," Sufiya told TOI. Her husband Mohammed Ali, a scrap businessman, lives in Mumbai. "He is slowly getting friendly with us," he said.
The child was the couple's first son after two daughters. A year after the kidnapping, the couple had another boy who is five years old now. "I am relieved that my grandson has been found. I had been waiting for this day," said Sattar Mansuri, Sufiya's father.