Santhi is so thrilled that the smile on her face just does not fade away. She is so elated at the prospect of being reunited with her sons, leaving behind her four roommates at the city Corporation’s beggar rehabilitation home, Sakshatkaram at Kalladimukham here. “I have two sons. They matter more,” she says.

A resident of the home for over three years, Santhi recently spoke with Surya, her elder son, over the phone.

A resident of Namakkal, she left home after a domestic dispute and met up with a person who made her beg for alms. Both were picked up by the police from the Central Railway Station and brought to the rehabilitation home.

Through landmarks

Reminiscing about her life in Namakkal, she speaks of her husband Badru who used to sell bananas. “He died of paralysis,” she says. Surya is married and the younger one is Satya.

Dhanya, a Master of Social Work student at Indira Gandhi National Open University, who helped in the search for Santhi’s family said, “Santhi remembered various landmarks in Namakkal. So, Google Earth was used to locate them, and these were shown to her. Then, a friend Chinsha who runs a software firm here and knew about Santhi approached his friend in Coimbatore who helped find a Namakkal contact Arul. Arul helped locate Santhi’s elder son.”

Then, it was time to let mother and son reconnect over the phone. “Santhi was overwhelmed. For one long minute, she just cried,” recalls Dhanya. Surya is now set to appear before the District Legal Services Authority on Tuesday before taking his mother home.