It was a terrible sight as a young woman hurried to greet an elderly woman who was stumbling weakly in her direction over the lush green of an espresso estate. Anjali, 31, and her mother Chaitra were not according to a predetermined narrative when they were sadly reunited on Tuesday in the Mudigere taluk of the Chikkamagaluru district after 22 years apart. Anjali, Chaitra and Kalimuttu’s sixth child, was removed from their custody at the beginning of the story, which takes place quite some time ago. The pair moved to Mudigere, Karnataka, from Tamil Nadu to deal with an espresso home. Chaitra describes the horrible events that happened when the new century began, mentioning that at that time, Kerala wood sellers would travel to Mudigere. Some of them brought elephants and mahouts to lift the wooden planks. Since a mahout’s family had pitched their tent not far from the site where we worked, the children from the two families were playing together. Anjali vanished at some time. Despite my best efforts to search everywhere for her, she wasn’t anywhere to be found. According to legend, she changed into a member of the mahout’s family. Nevertheless, it was completely difficult for us to imagine ourselves as she, Chaitra stated. Because of her financial situation, she chose against calling the police. Anjali traveled to Kerala with the mahout’s family when she was nine years old. Before getting married to the modest craftsman Nellamani Saji, she worked there for a while as a homegrown partner. She informed Mr. Saji about her predecessors’ marriages, and he started trying to contact Mudigere residents. I had the choice to get in touch with Mudigere social worker Monu with the assistance of friends in Kozhikode.
