Joy amidst floods

Mumbai: Kashmir floods may have been tragic for thousands, but for little Megha it was family reunion.   

Abducted from Bandra a year ago, the six-year-old was taken to Srinagar and forced into begging. She remembers all the details – even the name of the man who took her to Srinagar. 
Nazeer Ahmad, she said, beat her all the time. “He took me to UP, Kolkata and then to Kashmir, Srinagar and Sopore, and forced me to beg.”

When the floods came last month, he abandoned the child at a Darsgah, a religious school, in the city’s Dal Gate area.
At first, people took her for another flood survivor who had lost contact with her family. But Imam Ashiq Ilahi took charge of the situation. He left her in the care of a local family, informed the police and posted her photos on Facebook.

For the next two weeks, Jahanara’s family became Megha’s own.
“She was happy with my children and is like a daughter. We thought if nobody turned up to take her, we’ll keep her with us,” said Jaha Ara, who displaced by the floods, lives with her four children in the Darsgah complex.

It was the police that saved the day.
“In two hours, the details were matched,” said Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria. Megha’s family had lodged a complaint a year ago, when the child was lost. 
Megha’s grandfather Ramesh Madan Thakur came to Srinagar and took her back. Megha is happy. “I want to go back home,” she said.