Sameer often asks relatives 8216;where is my father8217;

Life at Bait-ul-Hilal has matured Sameer and the others beyond their age. They have learnt to live with whatever they have and make friends among themselves.

Sameer lives with four of his friends in a small room at the orphanage and is a student of class 9 in Srinagar8217;s Public High School. He says his close friend and classmate Adil Nazir is like his brother. 8220;He is there whenever I need help and I am there whenever he needs me,8221; says Sameer.

But what is beyond Sameer8217;s comprehension is the fact that he doesn8217;t know where his father is. The only question he has for his uncle and relatives is 8220;where is my father8221;.

8220;Whenever I asked my mother or grandmother about Papa, they told me to keep quite,8221; he says. 8220;Some of my relatives told me that one day my father left home for the fields to harvest the paddy but did not return,8221; says Sameer. For the last seven years now, he nurses only one dream. He wants to grow old and serve his villagers at Sonium, Pattan.

For 10 years, Sameer8217;s mother Raja Begum is also looking for the answer to a question: Is she a widow? In 2004, she remarried to get rid of the 8220;uncertainty8221; surrounding her existence. But the question still haunts her.