Bantwal: Narikombu village was swept by emotion on Thursday afternoon when a septuagenarian stranger stepped off a bus, looked around familiar lanes and quietly asked for his elder brother. The visitor turned out to be 75-year-old Sanjeeva Poojary, who had vanished from the hamlet at thirteen and had not been heard from for more than six decades.
In 1963, Sanjeeva left Karbettu Gowndlepal with neighbour Thaniyappa, chasing work in Mumbai. Early letters soon stopped, and once he quit his first job the trail went cold. Relatives searched fruitlessly before accepting that the teenager had vanished.
To stunned onlookers he sketched a life of shifting labour: loading cargo, sweeping floors, then driving for a lorry firm that let him go at sixty. Lately he washed dishes in a tiny eatery that withheld two years of pay.
Fed up, he spent his last rupees on a bus out of Mumbai on 4 June. After reaching Mangaluru he caught another coach to Panemangalore and finally trekked home. “I wanted to see my people before it is too late,” he told relatives who struggled to recognise him.
Village elders recalled that Sanjeeva’s parents died decades ago yearning for word of their youngest child. His surviving siblings, now in their late seventies, have resolved to care for him and formalise his return through local authorities. Neighbours are pooling resources for identity papers and medical check-ups, turning the reunion into a collective act of solidarity. A formal welcome ceremony is planned at the village temple this weekend, celebrating both reunion and resilience.
Read Also: