Himachal man who lost his memory reunited with family after 45 years

Shimla, Nov 21 (PTI) A 16-year-old boy from Himachal's Sirmaur district, who went missing after losing his memory due to a head injury, was reunited with his family members after 45 years following another head bump that brought his memory back.

Heart-touching scenes were witnessed when Rikhi, now known as Ravi Chaudhary, returned to his native Nadi village, near Nahan, last week, along with his wife and children. The family members of Rikhi were in tears as they believed that he was no more.

Rikhi was given a warm welcome with musical instruments and flowers by his family members and villagers as he reunited with his brother and sisters -- Durga Ram, Chander Mohan, Chandramani, Kaushalya Devi, Kala Devi and Sumitra Devi -- who were in tears to see him alive after more than four decades.

Rikhi was working at a hotel in Haryana's Yamunanagar when he met with a major road accident during a trip to Ambala. He sustained a head injury and went missing back in 1980.

The head injury was so grave that it resulted in complete memory wipeout, with Rishi even forgetting his identity and name. Later, his friends named him Ravi Chaudhary.

With no memory of his past, Rikhi moved to Mumbai, survived by doing small jobs and later settled in Maharashtra's Nanded after he started working in a college. Later, he got married to his wife, Santoshi and has three kids, including two daughters and a son.

However, a few months back, another head injury changed his life again. The Old faded images of a mango tree in his village, Nadi, narrow paths and the courtyard of a house in a place called Sataun started appearing in his dreams. Rikhi realised that it was not dreams but memories.

Rikhi sought help from a college student to locate Sataun, and they came across a phone number of a cafe while searching for Nadi village and Sataun on Google.

Rikhi called the number and interacted with a person named Rudra Prakash. As the word travelled, one of Rikhi's relatives, MK Chaubey, acknowledged Rikhi's faded past, and he was united with his family members in Nadi after other details were correlated.

"Though nothing is impossible, such cases of memory restoration after injury have been rarely documented, and the exact cause could be known after medical investigation of the brain", mental health expert Dr Aaditya Sharma told PTI on Friday. PTI BPL SHS SHS