Separated from her children for nearly a year, Sagarika Bhattacharya was in tears as she hugged and kissed three-year-old Abhyigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya when she met them here on Wednesday.
A day after the two children returned from Norway with their uncle Arunabhas Bhattacharya who was handed over their custody by a Norwegian Court earlier on Monday, Ms. Bhattacharya met them at a relative's house of the Bhattacharya's in the northern fringes of the city.
“I am delighted to hold them in my arms. I do not have words to express my feelings,” she told journalists, hugging her two children.
“Earlier we were allowed to meet them once a week but after that I could not even see them,” she said, adding that it was nearly two months ago she had last seen them in Norway.
On February 17, she met the children at a foster care centre in Norway after nine months for just an hour. Ms. Bhattacharya was distressed to see her children then and said that while Abhigyan had stopped talking little Aishwarya failed to recognise her mother.
Even while speaking to journalists she held the toddlers in her arms. Other family members present in the house said that the children were too young to understand the importance of the meeting, but said the children looked happy.
Asked where the children are likely to stay and who will take care of them, Ms Bhattacharya said: “I do not know what will happen, but it is my biggest achievement that I am with my children… It is a great satisfaction to hold them in my arms again,” she said.
Stating that it took a year-long struggle to bring the children back, she thanked the Centre and other political leaders who helped her get the children back home.