PATNA: Chhavi Musahar was just 23 when he suddenly disappeared from his home in Bihar’s Buxar district in 2009. After searching for him a couple of years, the relatives came to a conclusion that the youth was dead, and conducted his funeral rites. Even his wife, with whom Musahar had entered wedlock in 2007, married again. Only one person in the village kept alive a flicker of hope: His mother, Birti Devi.
Back to the present, almost 13 years after his disappearance, Musahar stepped into his home again on Tuesday, much to the disbelief of everyone in Buxar’s Khilafatpur village. With tears rolling down her cheek, Birti gave a traditional welcome to her lost son at the gate of their house. “Today is the happiest day in my life. I have got my son back after a long time. I am thankful to the Almighty for showering his blessings on the family,” the 55-year-old mother said.
Birti said she used to perform ‘chhath puja’ for her son’s well-being every year even after rest of the family abandoned any hope of Musahar being alive. “Bhagwan ne meri fariyad sun lee (God has listened to my prayers),” she said. “We had searched him everywhere -- from relatives’ houses to railway stations, bus stands and even hospitals -- for two years, but there was no trace of him,” said elder brother Ravi.
The question on everyone’s lips was what transpired in the life of Musahar between 2009 and 2022. Even the government officials who brought him back from the India-Pakistan border in Punjab are still clueless. It is suspected that the youth accidentally crossed the border somewhere in Punjab and landed in the hands of Pakistani authorities.