Odisha village reunites with man missing for 60 years

It was a regular Thursday evening in Luhagudi village of Gajapati district in Odisha. Men were playing cards and women were busy with their household chores when the children running around aimlessly alerted them about some visitors, a fortnight ago.

The visitors spoke no Odia. Yet, the story they narrated in Hindi and which the villagers understood to varying degrees made all of them sit up. It was something that Luhagudi will not forget in a hurry.

For, among the visitors was Gobardhana Lahara, a septuagenarian. He lived in Luhagudi with his parents. But some 60 years ago when Lahara was just 10, he had left the village along with several other elders to find work elsewhere. Then he had lost his way. 

One thing led to another and Lahara eventually wound his way to Nagpur where he worked and raised a family. He no more spoke Odia. Nor did he remember the name of his village.

But eventually, the family realised that he was from Odisha. All that the old man remembered was that the name of his village started with the letter ‘L’ and that it was close to a famous hot spring. 

Tracing back roots

Lahara’s children were intrigued. They now had the means and also the tools to find out more about their father’s roots. The hot spring, they found through extensive Google searches, could be Taptapani where tourists in large numbers flock from far and wide.

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They then hired a taxi and arrived at Taptapani. More enquiries with locals followed about nearby villages whose names began with ‘L” and they soon zeroed in on Luhagudi. Then they arrived with Lahara in the village on that eventful Thursday evening. It turned out to be a very memorable day.

Residents of Luhagudi were pleasantly surprised, if not stunned. The elderly among them had all grown up hearing about the ‘missing’ boy from the village. Most believed that the boy had died. But Lahara – though aged and frail – now stood before them, dispelling the widely held belief.

What followed was whoops of joy and impromptu celebrations. 

People from nearby villages came running as everyone crowded around Lahara. The old man narrated his story, over and over again.

“We were looking for work and that is why I left home. I was accompanying two other elders. But we did not have tickets and the ticket-checker forced us to get down. I remember when I got down, it was a railway station in Odisha. But then I boarded another train and this time, I travelled very far away from home,” he said.

By then, the two other elders had gone off in different directions. Lahara found himself alone in Nagpur.

He loitered around the city’s railway station for days, until the police picked him up one day and took him to a rehabilitation centre for children. Days and months passed and Lahara gradually assimilated himself into his new surroundings. He found a job in a local restaurant.

Years passed and Lahara gradually shed his past. He never discussed his roots with the family he raised in Nagpur, until recently.

“We often asked him about where he was born and where his family was. He didn’t say anything, until recently when he gave us some clues,” pointed out Rekha, Lahara’s eldest daughter.

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Lahara’s four children wasted little time in finding out more. They prepared to visit Taptapani.

Return of ‘the boy who went missing’

Once at the tourist spot, locating Luhagudi was not very difficult. Lahara’s reunion with his friends and family followed soon thereafter.

“I was shivering. The feeling was unreal,” recounted Lahara. His siblings who had continued to live in the village came running to meet him. Lahara was particularly keen to meet his elder brother. Unfortunately, though, he passed away some years ago.

“We could not believe what we were seeing,” said Jitendra Pradhan, Lahara’s nephew. The entire village knew about him – the boy who had gone missing. But few had hoped he would return one day. We touched him to be doubly sure that we were not dreaming.

Luckily, Lahara remembered the names of his siblings, the village elders, and even of the local school and the pond. 

“We saw a miracle unfold in front of our eyes,” pointed out Pradhan. Most ecstatic were Lahara’s sisters, who rushed to meet him with their children. They hugged, talked and cried – all in equal measure well into the night.

Lahara is back again in Nagpur, having slipped back into his routine of the past 60 years. But Luhagudi is yet to recover from the excitement of the unexpected reunion. The wait to meet him again has begun in right earnest.

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The lead image at the top shows Gobardhan Lahara, his wife, daughter and son were welcomed with proper rituals (Photo by Aishwarya Mohanty)

Aishwarya Mohanty is an independent journalist based in Odisha. She reports on the intersection of gender, social justice, rural issues and the environment. She is also a Rural Media Fellow powered by Youth Hub.