Durban - A Tongaat grandfather whose disappearance sparked a countrywide search in India has no recollection of what happened during the two weeks his family, strangers and authorities were searching frantically for him or the fact that he was missing.
Dhramalingum Pillay, 69, disappeared from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India.
He and his 34-year-old daughter Rabecca had left South Africa on January 20 on a 10-day tour of India. Owing to a delay in his flight back home with his daughter on January 30, Pillay disappeared from the Mumbai airport. Rabecca had fallen asleep at the time and when she awoke, her father was nowhere to be seen.
The family enlisted the help of the Indian police and the South African Embassy in India, as well as the services of a private investigator. Flyers detailing Pillay’s disappearance were distributed on the streets of Mumbai.
Friends and family put out appeals on social media for assistance in locating Pillay. Three days before he was found the family put up a reward for his safe return.
Pillay was found last Sunday wandering in the streets of Khar, a suburb in Mumbai. According to media reports in India, Pillay had been roaming the suburbs between Andheri and Khar and had sustained himself on whatever food strangers gave him.
Pillay had a stroke in 2018 and as a result has suffered from short-term memory loss.
Pillay and his daughter returned home to South Africa on Thursday. Rabecca said her father was doing better after resting, but he doesn’t remember anything. She said when she heard that he had been found she screamed and burst into tears. “I asked the police where he was so I could go there immediately,” she said. Rabecca said she was only relieved when she was reunited with him at the Sahar police station.
“He was happy and emotional as well, and so was I,” she said. She said those two weeks were a nightmare for her. “However, my courage, determination and prayer got me through each day. I felt a lot of different emotions. We met a lot of kind-hearted people that helped us by circulating the posters we had printed.
“I will forever be grateful to each genuine individual for the help they gave us during this time.
The gentlemen that found him refused the reward as they said it is what any human should do,” said Rabecca. She has also taken to social media to thank all those who assisted in trying to find her father.
“The 13 days he was missing will always be a mystery and the information will forever be unknown to us. My dad was found by two local residents who were arriving home from a get-together.
They were still talking when they noticed my dad being sent away by the security of a residential building.
“These two residents were sharp to catch my dad’s English accent and realised that it was rather unusual for a local ‘beggar’ to speak that way. Upon speaking to my dad, they asked him questions that he was able to perfectly answer about his family. “He gave them his home address which they Googled and realised it is in Tongaat, South Africa.
“There was a police officer passing by on patrol who was alerted and he advised them to call the 100 number and left. Police officers from Khar police station arrived about 45 minutes later. They had taken both the gentlemen and my dad to the Khar police station. “The two gentlemen could have left my dad but their hearts would not let them leave. “They stayed until they knew my dad would be given attention.
Once they had recorded their statement, which took about two-and-a-half hours, they left. “While at the station there was another gentleman who was there for some other matter, who later saw the article in the paper and alerted the station that he was the foreigner missing from Mumbai Airport and that the Sahar police, South African Consulate-General’s office and his daughter are searching for him.
“Khar police then alerted Sahar police who then confirmed that Mr Pillay indeed was reported missing, took custody of my dad and relayed the message that my dad had been found. “These two Indian citizens deserve the highest honour for ending our torturous search for my dad and later refused the reward as they said ‘it is what any human should do for another’.
“They also said ‘our reward is seeing him well’. “This once again proves that there are kind humans out there and God was definitely on our side for bringing them into my dad’s path.” Rabecca wrote that no apology was received from the airport.
“They still stick to their story that my dad voluntarily self-offloaded himself and allowed him to leave the airport without any form of identification, no cancelled ticket, no passport or even a signature in the register they keep at each gate.”
SUNDAY TRIBUNE