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The Lost and Found camp of Raja Ram Tiwari during Kumbh Mela


Thousands of people get separated from their families and friends during the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad. Eighty-year-old Raja Ram Tiwari will open his lost and found camp during the Ardh Kumbh Mela of 2007. He has been doing this during the Magh month for the past 60 years.

The number of people getting separated from their families increases during the Kumbh Melas.

Raja Ram Tiwari is popularly known as Bhule Bhatke Tiwari. He has so far helped more than 630,000 people to meet their families. Not all the lost people are lucky says Tiwari.



The original source BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6197157.stm) not linking back as the site is no https.
He narrates the story of a deaf woman who got separated from her husband at the fair a few years ago. 
"She was picked up by a rich family who took her away to their village. Her husband came to us looking for her. After searching for her for several days, I told the man to go back to his village and return a year later in time for the next fair." 
"He did return. And this time the rich family brought back his wife too. When she saw him, she ran towards him and they hugged each other and wept for two full hours. Thousands of people gathered around them. It was a heart-rending moment for me." Mr Tiwari relates the story of a little boy whose parents were never found.

"In 1999, we found a two-and-half-year-old boy. He had been separated from his mother. We kept him at the camp, we made announcements for his parents, distributed pamphlets. But for a month no one came to claim him. So we put him up for adoption. Lots of people applied, we finally gave him to a childless couple."

Mr Tiwari brings out a dusty, dog-eared yellow file with all the details of the little boy's case.

We note down the address of the adopted parents - Geeta and Kashi Naresh Srivastava - and travel out 125km (77 miles) from Allahabad to find them.

We find Geeta with her adopted son at their tiny two-room house in their village in Karvi.

"I had set up a stall at the fair grounds. I had no children then, everyone taunted me, said I will never be able to bear a child. I was very unhappy. And then I heard about a lost child at the fair so I put in an application to adopt him," she says.

Geeta visited the little boy everyday at the camp, taking him biscuits and sweets.

"There were lots of other applications too. But they gave him to me. They said he looks like you so you should be his mother. I think his name was Raju, but we decided to name him Suraj," she says. 
In a country of a billion-plus people with little social security, most of these separated children end up on the streets, making a living by begging or soliciting. That is why Mr Tiwari's job assumes great significance.

He has already been allotted land to set up the camp, and the 150 volunteers who will work with him this festival have begun to arrive.

"They fan out around the grounds and if they see anyone who seems lost or is weeping, they bring them to the camp."

Mr Tiwari says he is inspired by the holy river to carry on with his work.

A spartan man with simple needs, what drives him is the joy in the faces of those he helps reunite with their families.