PANJIM: A mother in Bangalore, who spent nearly a month in distress wondering how to reunite with her four-year-old son stuck in Goa, can’t thank the authorities enough for what they have done to bring about the reunion.
Showing exemplary coordination, police teams and district administrations in Goa and Bangalore helped bring the mother and son together, after ensuring all rules of the lockdown were followed.
It was on March 14 that Natasha and her husband Ryan D’Souza dropped their son to her parents-in-law at Arpora to spend a week’s vacation. The couple returned to Bangalore the same day to their work places. “We dropped our son to his grandparents’ place at Arpora. It was a one-week arrangement since Karnataka had closed down (many institutions including schools). My son was supposed to come to Bangalore with his grandparents a week later but then the lockdown was announced. We still waited patiently,” a relieved mother, told Herald in a telephonic conversation from Bangalore.
Amid indications of an extension of the lockdown – before Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement on April 14 – a distressed Natasha made frantic efforts to get her son to Bangalore. The child too was desperate to be with his parents.
Natasha then turned to Twitter, creating an account on Easter day, in a bid to reach out to any concerned authority or individual for help. On Twitter she faced her first hurdle when her account was blocked due to a misunderstanding.
“My account was blocked because Twitter assumed it could be some fraud or scam, as my tweet gathered a lot of attention. I had to manually unlock it,” she said, adding she holds no resentment against Twitter for, “they were doing their job and it’s completely great”.
She contacted the Bangalore police who routed her to South Bangalore’s Deputy Commissioner of Police. Natasha was offered immediate help but within the State’s jurisdiction. “I was given a letter by the DCP when I explained my situation. The DCP helped me to travel on condition that Goa Police will have to be informed about it and we will have to follow all the protocols,” she said.
“I spoke to Goa Police, who told me that I will have to be quarantined for 14 days once I enter the State. It was not an ideal situation because we are working in Bangalore. Then all of us came to a solution that I pick my son from the State border.”
With the letter from Bangalore Police, Natasha and Ryan drove to the Keri border on Tuesday morning arriving at around 11.30am. All through their journey, while they were stopped at every checkpoint and screened as per the rules, but the couple faced no problem.
The wait ended at around 12 noon when their son accompanied by his grandparents reached the border. The trio was driven to the Goa border at Keri by a relative in Goa. “It was a huge gamble and huge risk I had taken but hats off to every individual and government official, police from Goa and Bangalore who helped me reunite with my son and parents,” she said. PI Shivram Vaigankar was present at the border.
The couple with their son and the elderly couple drove back to Bangalore the same day after fulfilling the required formalities.
Superintendent of Police Shobhit Saxena, who monitored the event, said the local police team helped in coordinating and getting the clearances. “These are very difficult times for everyone so we have to be proactive for anyone who is in distress. When we came to know about her problem, we thought this was a case that required special attention. We told Natasha how to go about it. She then approached all the authorities ,” he told Herald.
He added, “We helped in coordinating and getting all the clearances. We ensured that there were no issues at the border. Our ground staff, including PI Vaigankar and Mamlatdar were also swift.”
