Nagpur: Panchubai (centre) with her family members, with whom she reunited after 40 years (Photo: TOI)

In what can be called as a story straight out of a film, a 94-year-old woman, who went missing 40 years ago, was recently reunited with her family in Nagpur. The Hindu woman Panchubai, who had gone missing from Maharashtra during 1979-80, was taken care of by a Muslim family as their own for 40 years! 

40 years ago, a truck driver had Panchubai in a clueless and pitiable condition on a road in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh. Israr Khan, the son of the truck driver, told PTI that the woman had been stung by honeybees and could not speak clearly. Israr was an infant when his father had brought the woman to their house. We called her Achchhan Mausi. She was mentally unstable and used to mutter in Marathi, which we could not understand. I sometimes asked her about her family, but she could not tell anything, Israr said.

Israr had even posted about her on Facebook but unfortunately received no response then. She would often talk about a place called Khanjma Nagar. Google search of the place yielded no results. Then on May 4 this year, as we were at home amid lockdown, I again enquired her about her hometown. This time she spoke about a place called Paraspur. We googled it and found that there is a place called Parsapur in Maharashtra, Israr said.

On May 7, Israr contacted a man identified as Abhishek, who runs a shop in Paraspur and informed him about the woman. Abhishek, who reportedly belongs to the Kirar? community, told him that there is a village called Khanjma Nagar near the town. I sent Abhishek the Mausis video, which he shared on a WhatsApp group of the Kirar community. I received a phone call from Abhishek around midnight saying that Mausi had been identified and her relatives were traced, Israr said.

Panchubais video was forwarded to her grandson Prithvi Bhaiyalal Shingane, who lives in Nagpur. Upon learning about Panchubai, the Shingane family was astounded. The family was eager to bring her home but had to wait until the lockdown restrictions were lifted. 

Finally, on June 17, Prithvi took his grandmother, whose full name is Panchfulabai Tejpalsingh Shingane, home. Prithvi said, We are natives of Khanjma Nagar in Achalpur tehsil in Amravati district of Maharashtra, but the family shifted to Nagpur about 5 decades ago. 

In 1979, my father brought my grandmother to Nagpur for treatment of her mental ailment from Khanjma Nagar. The doctors were optimistic about curing her. But one day, she left home in the evening telling neighbours that she was going to her fathers place and disappeared forever. My father searched for her for years but could not find her, Prithvi said.

Unfortunately Panchubais son passed away in 2017. It would have been so much better if I had found her three years ago. At the age of 94, my grandmother is still in good health thanks to the Khan family, who looked after her for such a long period. Prithvi added.