Lockdown tale: Man, wife meet after 21 years

Asansol: Around 21 years ago, Suresh Prasad of Burdwan had a quarrel with wife Urmila and left for Delhi, where he found a job never to return. The Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown finally compelled the migrant worker, now 61, to come home to his wife and children.

On Thursday morning, Urmila was intrigued when a policeman knocked on her door at Shyambandh in West Burdwan’s Hirapur and asked her to accompany him to the ESI Hospital in Asansol’s Kanyapur. When she and her younger son Sudhir, 24, reached the hospital, they found Suresh at the quarantine ward inside.

He had arrived on a Shramik Special train on Wednesday and, according to protocol, brought to the centre after thermal screening. He had given police the Shyambandh address. Kanyapur IC Dibyendu Mukherjee said Urmila was brought to the quarantine centre to identify the migrant worker.