Housabai and hos son Khandu who returned after 32 years
He was 26. This week, at 58, Khandu finally returned home. Waiting for him was his mother Housabai, now 90 and surviving on a pension of just Rs 2,500 a month. Around 32 years ago, 26-year-old Khandu ran a cycle repair shop in Rukdi. Then, in 2014, Madurai-based Akshaya Trust found Khandu living as a beggar in Chennai.
He once banged his head against a wall and injured himself, following which he developed mental health issues, according to his paternal aunt. Staff there told the volunteers about a man registered as Pandu Sakthi who spoke Marathi. Within days, he started remembering his past and told the volunteers he desperately wanted to go home. “He told us that he used to live in Rukadi and talked about his parents, especially father. We further enquired among relatives and neighbors and matched the claims,” said Ajay Ransure, a social worker with Shraddha Foundation.
Kolhapur: Thirty-two years ago, Khandu Shripati Sakate walked away from his home in Rukdi village in Kolhapur district. His mother did not know if she would ever see him again. She mostly lives alone in a rented room, occasionally staying with relatives. Khandu’s father, who had worked with a farmers’ cooperative, retired and died years ago without seeing his son return. His family was pressuring him to marry, but he did not want to. Soon afterwards, Khandu left home. The family did not lodge a missing person complaint. For years, there was no word from him. It moved him to a facility for destitute people. There, he was registered as Pandu Sakthi. His path home opened years later through a chance encounter. A team from Shraddha Foundation in Karjat, founded by Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Bharat Vatwani, had travelled to the Madurai facility to drop off another destitute person. The volunteers took Khandu to Karjat and began his treatment. We carried out search and found his mother Housabai living alone in a rented house.
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We have given him medicines he will need for two months and will continue to monitor health and provide medicines for next two years,” Ransure said. “We have reunited him with his mother and relatives. Download the TOI App.