KOLKATA: It was a touching reunion of a mother separated from her two infant children for a year over a custody row in Norway on grounds of alleged 'emotional disconnect' here today.
"I am overwhelmed as I am able to kiss them and take them
in my lap after a full one year. I can't express myself," the emotionally choked mother, Sagarika Bhattacharya, said holding her one-year-old daughter Aishwarya and three-year-old son Abhigyan tightly at a house in north Kolkata.
Sagarika, who returned to India alone last month and was staying with her parents at Birati in North 24 Parganas district, said "my parents (Monotosh Chakraborty and Sikha) and I struggled hard to be able to see the result today.
"For an entire year I was not allowed to see my children because of the Norwegian court order," she said.
Asked about her plans for the children in India, Sagarika said "I have no idea what I will do now. But it is more than what I expected."
Stating that she would not return to Norway, Sagarika avoided questions about her husband, Anurup, a geoscientist still in the Scandinavian country and awaiting permission to leave for India.
Earlier, Sagarika posted a message on Facebook on her children saying "Give them a big hug from me and on behalf of my parents.
"I don't know how my children are, but always pray to God they should be well in future," she said after the prolonged row ended in the Scandinavian country with the arrival in Delhi yesterday of the two toddlers with their uncle Arunabhash who was granted their custody.
"Children are most valuable things in my life. I will dedicate my whole life to them," she said.
"I always keep silent for greater cause, because I am an Indian mother. Me and my parents were fighting since last one year and we started fight again after 23rd March....," she said.
She conveyed her best regards to the Indian government, Indian people, politicians, media, Norwegian people and human rights organisations "who helped me a lot."