Shehnaz finally met her son Muhammed alias Faiz Hussein, after nine long years, at a child rescue centre on Monday.
The mother broke down on seeing her son and couldn’t stop hugging him, and neither could he. “I ran from pillar to post looking for him but couldn’t find him. My prayers have finally been answered,” she said.
Shehnaz had come to the city from Jabalpur, with her 7-year-old son in 2007. As they stepped out of the train she asked him to wait at the platform while she went to get a taxi, but when she returned she couldn’t find him.
He went missing.
“I, too, was lost in this city. I was unable to explain my situation to anyone as I didn’t know the language. I rang up my husband and he asked me to wait around and look for him for some more time. But nothing came of it,” said Shehnaz holding back her tears.
Muhammed, clutching his mother’s arm, said: “I cried for several years thinking about my parents as I missed them immensely.” He was rescued by officials from Childline at the Chennai Central who produced him in front of the Child Welfare Committee and was later sent to a home run by the Don Bosco Anbu Illam (DBAI). “We were unable to get any proper information from him at that time as he was too young. When we asked what his name was he said Muhammed, that’s how we named him. We, however, continued looking for his parents,” said Johnson Bashyam SDB, Rector and Director of DBAI.
Muhammed was enrolled in St Joseph’s school, where he was a good student who displayed a keen interest in running and high jump. He even represented the district at the annual sports meet.
However, there was always a void. “I was sent to foster homes, but I don’t have any friends and felt unwanted,” he said. “I want to become a cricketer one day and that’s my only aim,” he said in Tamil looking at his father, who was trying hard to figure out the language. “I have bought a Hindi to Tamil translation dictionary, so that I can understand what he says. We’ll teach him Hindi too,” said Muhammad Hussein, his father.
The home currently houses 102 children, of which 23 are orphans, 70 have single parents and the remaining 9 were found abandoned at stations, bus stops and other public places.
“We get such cases almost every single day,” said a senior CWC official. “I have my exam tomorrow, but I will go home once it gets over,” he said as he stepped out of the home with his family.
