In a scene reminiscent of a Bollywood potboiler, three sisters were united with their long-lost family at the state-run girl's home in Lucknow after eleven long years.
The three sisters - Naseema (20), Ameena (16) and Aruna (12) - had no inkling that a matrimonial given in the newspapers for the marriage of the eldest would unite them with their lost family.
Shahnaz Sidrat, president of the Bazm-e-Khawateen, (a social welfare organisation working for uplift of women) who visited the home to help find a suitable match after coming across the matrimonial in September, was told about their desire to return home.
The sisters spoke about their village Mitli in Baghpat district and about their family and sought her help to trace them, Sidrat said.
With the help of some other social organisations like All India Taleemgar, which has a branch in Baghpat, the trio traced Waseem, their brother now 21, who had since shifted to Badauth in Meerut district.
After coming to know about them, Waseem too was as keen to meet his sisters. He was brought to Lucknow on Thursday and reunited with them, Sidrat said.
Inquiries into the background of the sisters while tracing their brother also bought to light the fact that their mother, Nafisa, is presently lodged in the model jail in Lucknow. The four siblings were taken to the jail to meet their mother.
The mother told the staff of the government–run children's home and social organisations that the girls be sent to their native village with their brother and rehabilitated, Sidrat said.
Efforts are now being made to get the custody of the girls through the court, she said adding that the social organisations will also help trace their father whose whereabouts were not known.
According to the information provided by the brother, their parents were framed in a murder case over a property dispute 11 years ago.
The parents were subsequently imprisoned. Authorities allowed the youngest daughter, Aruna, to stay with the parents while the two elder sisters were sent to the government-run home.
When she became a little older, Aruna too was sent to the same institution as her other sisters who, after several attempts, recognised her as their sibling Aloona who had been given a new name in the model jail.
More from rediff