Geeta was only seven years old when she was found sitting in the Samjhauta Express, the only train that runs from India to Pakistan, which was at a platform in Lahore, Nobody knew where she had come from. Being deaf and dumb didn’t help either. Fifteen years later, she is finally coming home to India, to her family.
In Pakistan, she had been living in with the Edhi Foundation in Karachi and was given the name Geeta by the Edhi staff. She didn’t even tell anyone her name, let alone where and who her guardians were. Her case came into prominence when a Bollywood movie starring Salman Khan, which had a similar plot became a super hit in India. After numerous interviews and media exposure, the Indian High Commission took charge of her case and sent her many images of families with lost daughters. Out of these, she recognised one family from Bihar, and today she has come to India to meet them.
The head of the family, she recognised to be hers, claims to have lost a girl child in a fair, who was deaf and mute as well. Her name was Heera. Now only a DNA test will tell us if Geeta is really Heera. The Indian government is all set to conduct one on her arrival and if the DNA doesn’t match, then there are arrangements to keep her in other institutions for women with disabilities.
Her homecoming does make one happy. India’s daughter is back home finally!
Image courtesy: Reuters
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