THANE: It’s a story straight from a 1970s Bollywood thriller. A boy separated from his parents 18 years ago was recently reunited with his family in Thane after his mother identified a tattoo she had inscribed on his right arm when he was a toddler.

The tattoo, bearing her name ‘Manda R Dhangde,’ has now 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 seven.

Ganesh, who grew up in the Anand Kendra orphanage in Worli, is now a commando in the Quick Response Team of Thane police. In fact, it is his becoming a QRT member in July this year that led to the reunification, for it was his senior, police inspector Shrikant Sonde, who took upon himself the task of finding Ganesh’s family.

One day, while chatting, Ganesh told Sonde how he had got lost in the crowd at Thane railway station when he was in Class 2.

He had taken a train to CST on his own at that time and eventually landed in the Worli orphanage, he said. Though the seven-year-old Ganesh remembered his surname, he did not remember the names of his parents.

Sonde and his team went back to the orphanage recently and asked for details about Ganesh. An elderly person in the canteen there told them that when Ganesh was a kid, he would say that his family came from a place near the ‘Mama-Bhanja hill.’

The police team found out that this hill was near Roopadevipada, a tribal hamlet in Thane’s Wagle Estate area. There, they found a family with the surname Dhangde and inquired with the elderly woman of the house if she had lost a son.

When she said she had, the police team asked her if there had been any identification mark on him. “She promptly said she had tattooed her name on his right arm, and there, the story had a happy ending, with mother and son hugging each other,” inspector Sonde said.

The mother said, “I was so happy to see Ganesh, I couldn’t hold back my tears. This has given me a new lease of life.” Manda lost her husband Raghunath some time ago.

Ganesh said, “It’s a great moment for me, and it has been possible because of the co-operation of my seniors and colleagues.”

Ganesh, who is doing his BA at Thane College, said that when he was in Class 7 at the orphanage, he had got a scholarship in sports . “After a few months of training, I was directed to join the Thane Krida Prabodhini. I won a slew of medals at district, state and national level competitions, all of which helped me to join the police force in 2010.”

Sonde said that Ganesh’s excellence in sports was testimony to his talent, and added that his conduct as a member of the QRT was “excellent.”

Before being reunited with his mother, Ganesh was staying at the police colony in Thane; now, he lives with her and three siblings—two younger brothers and a sister—and trains as a QRT member from morning to evening.

