Cops help 35-year-old rescued in Mumbai as a child search for parents | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: Dr Aditya Choregaonkar, 35, had another name in another life. He was called ‘Sunny’ then, but he remembers little else about that time. “There was a forest near my home,” says Choregaonkar. Tacking a third memory to the other two, he recalls, “I spent two days at a policeman’s house.”

If his lines appear rehearsed, it’s because Choregaonkar has been going over them for the last three decades, in the hope that they will shake loose a few more clues. A grants manager with a Bengaluru-based non-profit that works to enhance primary education in rural government schools, Choregaonkar was only four when he was rescued from the streets of Mumbai by a policeman, in 1994.

He has been trying to trace his parents for several years and stepped up his efforts recently, when two police inspectors – Sharmila Sahastrabudde in Mumbai and Seema Parihar in Nashik – joined his quest. They are using the power of social media to help Choregaonkar unlock his past and access paperwork that would otherwise have been out of his reach.

Choregaonkar has a good life but says he needs to fill this all-consuming void to feel complete. “I feel driven to trace my family and relatives so that I can get a sense of closure. I feel a deep need to belong that longs to be fulfilled.”

To start with, he examined the records of the Mumbai police’s Missing Persons’ Bureau, for the identity of the policeman who had rescued him, and to pinpoint the place where he had been picked up. Neither detail was available.

“I only remember that my grandmother used to call me ‘Sunny’. I also have a vivid memory of spending two days at the home of a policeman, who later dropped me off at the Children’s Aid Home in Mankhurd when I was four years old,” says Choregaonkar.

‘Sunny’ was shifted to Asha Sadan an adoption centre in Dongri but no one wanted to adopt him as he used to cry incessantly for his parents and grandmother. “I would to try to run out of the centre but was stopped by the security guards. I longed for my parents. The only memory I have of that time is that there was a little forest near our home.”

Two months later, he was transferred to Balgram, SOS Children’s Village, in Yerawada, Pune, where he was given a new name – ‘Aditya Choregaonkar’ so that he could build a new identity and pursue an education.

Choregaonkar completed his primary education at the children’s home in Pune, and was sent to Nanded, where he studied from Class 10 to 12. Next, he earned a Bachelor’s degree from the Yashwantrao Chavan School of Social Work in Satara, and a Master’s degree in Social Work from the Karve Institute of Social Service, Pune.

He went to Udaipur in Rajasthan on a two-year fellowship, where he worked on a youth leadership development programme. Next, he acquired an M Phil degree and a PhD degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. “After that, I got a job with Azim Premji’s NGO in Bengaluru, where I am working now. But I am constantly haunted by two questions: who are my parents and where are they?”

Choregaonkar says that despite having a good job and income, he is still single. “I have been turned down six to seven times. No one wants their daughter to marry me because I grew up as an orphan and have no caste. I have everything but no family. I am lonely,” he says.

He says he doesn’t want other children like him to suffer the same fate and blames the government system for his predicament. “Apart from tracing my family, I want to raise a voice against the government system, which runs an entire child protection system without considering the best interests of the child. Their responsibility shouldn’t stop with dumping children into children’s homes.”

After the two police inspectors joined his mission, Choregaonkar may have got his first clue – the name ‘Ranpise’, the probationary officer who admitted ‘Sunny’ to Asha Sadan in Dongri. “We found a document at Asha Sadan with her name on it. She is now a board member of the Child Welfare Committee,” said police inspector Seema Parihar.

“I met Aditya a few years ago at an event for orphan children in Navi Mumbai. He discussed his life with me. After that, I started helping him to search for his parents. We are trying to source information from various quarters. Let’s see…” says Parihar.