Daijiworld News Network (VM)

Udupi  Feb 2: An overjoyed mother hugging her son on his return into her fold after a gap of 14 years sounds filmy. But this was true in the case of Leela of Mudubettu in Udupi district, whose joys had no boundaries as she united with her lost son.

The interesting part of the story is that an old newspaper used to wrap beaten rice led to the touching mother-son reunion.

Leela married Shekhar believing that he belonged to the same village, but later found that he originally hailed from Tamil Nadu. A son was born to them Muthuraja (fondly called as Raja), and conflicts also took birth between the couple. Continuous quarrels led to Shekhar abandoning his wife.

Muthuraja was taken away by this father Shekhar from their house at Mudubettu at the tender age of one year eight months and was exposed to the harsh realities of the work world.

For the three years Raja was with his father and was later employed as domestic labourer at a house of a landlord at Balehole in Shimoga district. The following year, he was shifted to another landlord at Mudugere where he was physical harassed. He was compelled to run away and finally landed in the Observation Home (earlier called the Remand Home) and then reached the Nirmala Service Institute, Shimoga.

At the centre he received love and care. On several occasions advertisements were published in newspapers appealing to the public to provide information on the boy. It was one such advertisement that Leela found which later led to the reunion of the mother and son.

One evening in Jan 2006 Leela’s sighted the name of her husband Shekhar on an old newspaper advertisement which carried a photograph of a boy. Leela had obtained the old newspaper from the neighborhood shop keeper who wrapped beaten rice in it.

That rang a bell for Leela. Although the newspaper advertisement appeared in 2005 she rushed to Shimoga with all the photos of her family. Raja identified his father and later medical tests confirmed that Raja was Leela’s son.

This dramatic reunion however ended with Leela taking her son back to her house in Mudubettu.