JAIPUR: Hanuman Saini of Bansur town has walked back from the dead - 34 years after he disappeared from the material world, renouncing his wife and three daughters to live a sadhu's life in the Himalayas and find moksha.
After decades of "tapasya" at a temple in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra, the 75-year-old returned home because the "goddess told him to". As he flashed his affable buck-toothed smile while posing Tuesday for photos with his near and dear ones, he has yet to discover that his family had had him officially registered as dead.
"He had gone to work at a shop in New Delhi back in 1989 and he disappeared thereafter. We could not find him anywhere," said his son Ram Chandra. His family and neighbours searched for him several days and nights. Police were reported, but the case went cold as he couldn't be found.
The family waited long and fought a painstakingly slow legal battle for a death certificate, which a court issued in 2022. People milled around the Saini home Tuesday after the "dead man" reappeared.
Saini's old friend helped him to reach his house "I reached Alwar Monday. I walked from Khairthal railway station to Tatarpur and found help to reach Bansur, but everything had changed here. I could not find my house," Saini said.
He was surrounded by faces and buildings he had no memory of, but a chance meeting with an old friend helped him to locate his house. His family stood in disbelief for several hours. He took a long look at the people and paused when he spotted his wife Durga Devi. "I am home," he said.
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