Tattoo reunites mother and son after 24 years

If you hear someone relating a story where a child is lost in a crowded location, finds his family after many many years , the question we might raise is whether he was talking about a certain popular Hindi film.

Ganesh

But in Ganesh Ragunath Dhangade's case it happened to be a true story. And the other vital fact is that the tattoo is in one of his hands. Though some may think tattoos as unhealthy or maybe uncivilised yet for Ganesh it became the most important symbol of his life as it helped to find his long lost family.

The story began in 1989 when Ganesh boarded a crowded train with his friends but became separated from them. At the time he was only six years old and unable to provide authorities with his address.

Now, Ganesh, a constable in the Mumbai police force recalls how he survived in this unknown location: I cleaned platforms and ate at dargahs and Ganesh mandals.

I met a fisherman who took me home. I used to play with his son, Sainath. They used to make me beg on local trains and give me food in exchange for the money," One day, he met with an accident and was admitted to a hospital, where he lay in coma for several months. Since no one could trace his family, he was handed over to an orphanage in Worli after four months.

At the Anand Ashram in Worli, the workers took care of him, fed him and educated him. He studied there till Std VII and later shifted to an orphanage in Thane, where he studied till Std X. He then joined Sanket Vidyalaya and Junior College in Thane, and studied till Std XII.

He was physically fit and an athlete - he had participated in several state-level and national-level games. His education was funded by Krida Prabodhini, a state-run program to encourage talented sportsmen.

He then took the police exams, cleared the written, physical and medical tests, and joined the Quick Response Team (QRT) of the Mumbai Police as a constable in 2011.

On July 23, 2011, when seniors were taking introductions from the fresh recruits, Ganesh could only tell them his name. Police Inspector Shrikhant Sonde asked him his family background. "When everybody was introducing himself to me, one constable only told me his name - Ganesh Raghunath Dhangade. He could not give me any other introduction about his family. When I inquired further, he told me had been separated from his parents at the age of six," said Sonde.

Dhangade only knew his mother's name - Manda R Dhangade - which had been tattooed on his arm. When he saw parents of other recruits attending in-house functions, it made him miss his parents. He approached his seniors to help him trace his family and they assured him that they would do all they could to help him. They asked him to check on missing records in police stations.

Ganesh asked his friends to help out. "I, along with one of my fellow recruit and friend Sumit Gandhavale, started checking the missing bureau records online and in police stations turn by turn," he said.

"One day, I went to the Worli orphanage where I had stayed. I met the old mess worker Shamsuddhin Abdul Shaikh, and asked him about my past," said Dhangade.

Dhangade found out that he had enrolled in the Anand Orphanage saying that he hailed from the Mamu Bhanja Dargah area. The duo roamed around Mumbai looking for a dargah with the same name. After two months, they finally got their first clue - the dargah was at Lokmanya Nagar, Thane (W). On October 4, they reached the Mamu Bhanja dargah in Thane, and asked locals about his mother, Manda, whose name had been tattooed on his hand. They came to know that an old lady by the same name lived on a hill nearby.

"We asked her if she had lost her child 20 years ago, and she replied in the positive. We asked if the child had any identification marks on his body, and she told us about the tattoo on the arms. That's when I showed it to her," narrates a tearful Ganesh.

Ganesh showing the tattoo to his mother

The tattoo, bearing her name 'Manda R Dhangde,' had faded with time, but whatever little there is left of it was enough to convince her that the big, strong 25-year-old who stood in front of her was her son Ganesh, who had gone missing when he was six.

"It was a beautiful moment. Both were in tears. For several minutes, they said nothing. They just cried, but the tears said it all," says Gandhavale, the colleague who helped him all this while.

"My mother told me that I had gone to the Thane Municipal school at Wagle Estate, where I met my friend Ganesh Kharavi.

He was going to his uncle's place and asked me to tag along. So we boarded a train, but somehow I got lost in the crowd," says the elated constable. He is extremely grateful to his seniors and colleagues. "This reunion would not have been possible without the guidance of my seniors, especially Mr Sonde, who told me how to go about the search.

"He is happy that he can care for his old mother, who earns by doing house chores, and his two younger brothers, and a sister. Manda, who works as maid, had tattoos made on each of her children at the age of one. After Ganesh went missing, she went to several police stations in Thane and Bhiwandi. She even went to Children homes but she failed to find her son.

"We had not celebrated a single festival since he went missing. But this year we will celebrate Diwali in a grand way," she said embracing her long lost son.