BALLARY: Prasanna Joshi, an employee with a religious NGO in Maharashtra, had a shock of his life when he found a post on social media about his missing sister. His sister, Supriya, had gone missing since 2016 from Latur of Maharashtra and she was found in Ballari recently. Prasanna had tried searching for his sister several times in the past but to no avail. It is said Supriya left home after a fight with her brother over her marriage. She wandered in many places before she settled down in Ballari.
The happy tidings started when the district administration stepped up checking during the outbreak of the pandemic in March. The officials found that Supriya was homeless and was mentally unstable. They took her to Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) for Covid-19 testing. After she was found negative, she was kept under treatment at Shanti Dhama orphanage centre. The staff and counsellors at the orphanage tried talking to Supriya about her family.
They realised that she had not fully recovered from her mental trauma and that she had left her home long ago. “We decided to post about her on the social media seeking any contact of her relatives. In June first week, Prasanna Joshi, Supriya’s brother, contacted us and came down to Ballari. After being in quarantine and testing negative, he was allowed to meet his sister. Both siblings recognised each other upon meeting,” said a senior counsellor at Shanti Dhama.
DC S S Nakul said that Supriya was admitted to hospital in March. “We are happy about the family reunion and all the credit goes to the hospital and orphanage staff in Ballari,” he said. R Nagaraj, District Women and Child Welfare Development Officer, said, “She mention about visiting Gokarna and Goa in the last few years. When we came to know that she had left her home, we decided to go on social media to find her family,” he explained.
Expressing gratitude Prasanna Joshi, Supriya’s brother thanked the Ballari district administration for the happy reunion. “Our parents died in 2013 and since then Supriya was in a state of shock. She fought with me over a petty issue and left home. Now that I have found her, I have no words to express my happiness,” he told TNIE.