Odisha kid who had left her home 6 years ago in a huff reunited with her family

In January 2011, In the temple town of Puri, where her grandmother lived, she got up a train along with another girl. Both the girls and travelled till Nellore station of Andhra Pradesh where she took to sweeping of railway compartments. A former railway clerk who ran an orphanage Nellore rescued and renamed her Pooja. Naani Bone would probably have stayed on at the orphanage had she not told her rescuers last September that she actually hailed from Puri district.

Naani Bone with her mother (Express Photo)

It was only on April 28 evening that the 13-year-old girl finally reunited with her family of five brothers and sisters in Jagatsinghpur town after a team sent by Child Welfare Committee from Nellore brought her to Odisha. “I could not tell you how much I was missing her. All these years I have always kept her in my prayers hoping to get lucky one day,” said Munni, who cried and embraced her daughter.

Udaynath Swain, protection officer of Jagatsinghpur district child protection unit, said the biggest difficulty was language. “It created huge communication gap. None of us knew Telugu. The kid understood and spoke only Telugu. We had to struggle,” said Swain. Ramesh Babu, chairperson of Nellore Child Welfare Committee that passed the repatriation order, said as per the Juvenile Justice Act, the kid should stays with her natural guardians than orphanage.

Five days after she came back to her family, a shy but smiling Naani Bone would not reveal how she went missing in January 2011. But J. Rama Chandra Sarath Babu, a former railway clerk in south central railway, who runs Child Ashram school, an orphanage of 140+ kids in Gollapalem village of Nellore, remembers he found the Naani Bone with almost no hair on her head and bewildered. “She was alone and swept the railway compartment with a small broom. She had almost no hair and looked like a boy. When I asked her about her parents she said they were blind and begged. But she would tell anything about the place she came from,” said Babu. When Babu tried to hand her over to a male warden, she protested saying “she was a girl”. She told Babu that her name was Pooja and she has run away from home.

Naani Bone with Sarath babu (Express Photo)

Everytime Sarath babu asked her about her parents and home, Pooja alias Naani Bone would stick to her version of her parents being beggar. She lacked social skills and used to eat charcoal and bricks. Though she did not show much interest in studies, she was admitted to a Telugu-medium school in Nellore. “She never showed any interest in studies and was much keen on learning handicrafts. She was very stubborn and often ate bricks and charcoal,” said Babu, whom Naani Bone and other kids address as “Daddy”. But Babu said the actual reason the girl revealed her parent’s whereabouts was due to her struggle with the studies. “For last few years, she found the studies a little too tough for her. Last year she seemed to have made up her mind about not continuing studies and probably wanted to go back,” he said.

It was during Ganesh puja last year in September when Naani Bone told Babu that she hailed from Puri district and her parents often went to Jagannath temple for selling steel utsensils in lieu of used sarees. A surprised Babu asked her why she did not revealed it all these years, but she kept mum. Babu then showed her the photos of Jagannath temple on the Internet and when she recognised Puri. She also remembered the name of her parents to Babu.

When CWC Nellore informed its counterpart in Puri district, they had no way of finding out the family details of the nomadic Khaudias. The search almost went cold till the Puri cops found a station diary lodged by Munni Khoudia in Nimapara police station. “A search in the given address in Nimapara revealed that the family had relocated to Jagatsinghpur town 4 years ago,” said Kanhu Charan Rout, Jagatsinghpur district child protection officer.

However it was difficult to locate the Khoudias in Jagatsinghpur town for almost 3-4 months till the Jagatsinghpur district child protection unit stumbled upon the person who had given one of his houses on rent to the nomadic family in February. Using whatsapp video calling feature the Jagatsinghpur district officials managed to get Naani Bone and her mother to talk to each other and recognise. “I could recognise her from several cut marks on her head. She recognised me seeing black mole near my nose,” said Munni while Shyam could not recognise.

Naani Bone at the Nellore orphanage (Express Photo)

Language proved tobe a hurdle in the girl’s reunion as she spoke only Telugu and there was no one in the Khaudia family who could speak Telugu. Luck arrived in the form of the girl’s aunt Kanchan Gujrati who knew Telugu due to her stay in Berhampur town. Her sister-in-law Radha Khaudia who hawked steel utensils in Guntur district later helped in acting as a bridge between the girl and her parents.

After she reached home, Naani Bone was surprised to see two other siblings – one 4-year-old and another 6-year-old. “Both were born after she went missing. Another younger sister who was born just before her disappearance is now with a relative in Bhubaneswar,” said Munni. Incidentally, she is the only literate in the family. Her two younger brothers have just been admitted to local schools in Jagatsinghpur.

Back home after staying away for 6 years, the girl still struggles to speak to her parents in Gujarati. Her aunt Kanchan Gujarati still acts as her translator. “Would you ever run away from home,” asked her aunt in Telugu. “No. I would stay with my mother,” said the girl.