I was only 5 when my mother abandoned me. My father was a rickshaw puller who used to be a drunkard. My grandparents had a small tea stall that was under a flyover near Vasant Vihar and that was our main source of income. I also had a younger sister and she was just 3 years old at that point of time. Every morning both of us were handed a begging bowl and happily we would just run across the road towards the traffic signal waiting for the vehicles to stop and then we would beg for money or even food. Suddenly one afternoon we were surrounded by three angels who took keen interest in knowing where we were staying.  We led them to our hut, where they had along chat with my grandmother. The very next morning those angels came to our hut; they took me, my sister and our father in their car and we reached a place where I saw many children running around as soon as I got down. Every single child out there seemed so happy and they had a huge smile on their face, they apparently made a lot of noise and evidently they were very energetic and full of life.  I was fascinated by what I saw but I had no idea that soon they would be a part of my life too and it happened as very soon as I became one amongst them.  It was later I realized who these three angels were, “They were the Sisters of Don Bosco, looking after the poor and abandon children.  My father soon left us and disappeared and it seemed as though it was forever. My grandfather initially visited us for sometime then he too was nowhere to be seen.  Every morning we wait for him with lots of expectations but he never returned.  We were discouraged and we lost all hope.  Then onwards, we were known as “orphans”.  Meanwhile we were enrolled in school, ever since I was a kid I did not have anybody to correct my wrongdoings, I was on my own and carefree thus I turned to be quite naughty and I was not bright academically as I did not concentrate on studies much. I gave the sisters a lot of headache, I bothered them so much yet all of them treated me with so much of love and care, providing everything necessary for my growth and well being. Meanwhile my kid sister grew up to be an angel, we were completely different from each other. It was almost paradoxical. She turned out to be a great singer and a very good dancer.  By the time I turned 14, I had given up all hopes of rejoining with my family. I just surrendered everything to the Lord and I believe that he himself intervened to give me what I had always wished for. One fine day the Sisters took us to the same exact spot where we used to beg for food and money in our childhood days, some of the people were surprised seeing us back there and the shopkeepers identified us and they called us by our names.  Sisters then enquired from these people about our family and it was then that we came to know that our grandparents were no more and our father had left the place and was staying in some other locality.  Those people promised to help us to trace out our father and his whereabouts.  Then the sisters spent a lot time in consulting various people to know about the details of our father.  After a few days all the hard work bore its fruit when my father reached Snehalaya.  Me and my sister were in tears when we saw our dear father, we told one another that we were no more orphans.  Our family is reunited and anything in words would just be an understatement if I had to talk about the struggles and hard work put in by the sisters in helping us find our father.

Kajal