From little kids to the elderly, a lot of people go missing every year in India and sadly, very few can find their way back home or are successfully traced.
However, in today’s date and time, the reach of social media is so extensive that many people have been found with the help of Facebook posts and Twitter updates, that are uploaded by good samaritans and we have even covered a few stories on such incidents.
However, finding a man who has been missing for the past 40 years is no mere task. One couldn’t be sure if he is still living in the country or alive for that matter.
However, a YouTube video uploaded by a Mumbai-based photographer proved a blessing for Khomdram Kulachandra, a daily wage labourer working in Imphal, who had been on the lookout for his elder brother, Khomdram Gambhir, for all these years but to no avail.
Bent with old age, Gambhir was found begging and singing on the streets of Mumbai when Firoze Shakir stumbled upon the old man. Singing the timeless Bollywood song, “Rote Hue Aate Hain Sab,” Gambhir interacted with Firoze and spoke of his circumstances in the video.
Having once served in Manipur Rifles for 17 years, Gambhir, who had been the eldest amongst six siblings, had quite a tragic setback following the demise of his wife, which set him forth on an undecided journey from the Khumbom Mamang locality in Imphal in 1978 and would eventually land him in the City of Dreams.
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Interestingly, Firoze had uploaded the video in October last year, and it was accidentally found by an assistant professor at the North East Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) in Arunachal Pradesh as he was browsing through YouTube, a few days ago.
“He informed one of our friends about the video that featured a person in his mid-sixties with Manipuri features singing and begging on the streets of Mumbai. The video, circulated through social media and reached his family two days ago,” Atom Samarendra, a Central government employee, told The Hindu.
According to Themthing Ngashangva, the senior superintendent of police of Imphal West district, the local officials have been coordinating with their counterparts in the Bandra West area of Mumbai ever since Gambhir’s identity was established and hope to reunite Gambhir with his family in two-three days.
Kulachandra is scheduled to fly to Mumbai to bring back his elder brother today and will be accompanied by a few Manipuri policemen. In a poignant display of solidarity, the former’s air ticket to Mumbai was funded by the money raised by the local people in the region.
“I could not believe my eyes when one of my nephews showed me the video footage. We had lost all hope of seeing him alive again,” Kulachandra said.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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