145;Someone seen my kid?146;

Her eyes relentlessly darted through the crowd of children, looking for a face she last saw four years ago. Hafiza Bibi held out a frayed photograph of her son Sunarul, who disappeared on October 13, 1998.

She came to look for him in what seems like the most unlikely of places—a Diwali mela. She had her reasons: the mela is organised by an NGO working with street children, and Hafiza thought that just maybe, she would find her boy here.

Held at Don Bosco High School in Matunga, the mela is an annual affair organised by Shelter Don Bosco. Each day had a theme: the first day was for girls living on Mumbai’s mean streets and from various institutions, communities and slums; the second for boys from institutions and slums. And Friday was exclusively for boys living on the streets. So Hafiza Bibi turned up, photo in hand and hope in her heart. ‘‘We had gone visiting to Dadar. My two-year-old son went out at around 3 p.m. and never returned,’’ she said, cradling her three-year-old daughter Baharul in her arms.