KARACHI: Geeta, the Indian girl living at the Edhi Home at Meethadar for over 12 years now, was on Tuesday paid a visit by the Indian High Commissioner Dr T.C.A. Raghavan and Mrs Raghavan who brought her good tidings from India along with several gifts.

The meeting with the young lady was private with Mrs Bilquis Edhi and son Faisal Edhi present while Maulana Abdul Sattar Edhi waited downstairs. But speaking to media, the Indian High Commissioner said that his presence here in the narrow streets of Meethadar was itself a gesture towards peace in the region and may even pave way for resumption of India-Pakistan dialogue.

He also said that he personally wanted to meet Geeta to try and gain as much knowledge about her as possible. He showed her pictures and maps of India too but she couldn’t pinpoint the location from where she had come. Geeta also scribbled in Sanskrit for him but he couldn’t decipher what she had written as it didn’t seem like the usual script to him. Still, the High Commissioner said that he would try everything within his power to find Geeta’s parents or relatives.

Also read: Will 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' help this girl stranded in Pakistan?

Dr Raghavan also aired his delight to be finally meeting Maulana Edhi and Mrs Bilquis Edhi in person.

From Fatima to Geeta

If you go to Edhi Home to meet Geeta, she joins both hands together to greet you and bends to touch your feet out of respect. She performs pooja and prays five times a day. Geeta has been living in Pakistan for over 12 years now after being discovered as a little girl of eight or nine years in Lahore.

Geeta’s story raised interest once again thanks to the release of a Bollywood film which tells the story of another little girl from Pakistan getting separated from her mother during a visit to India and losing her way there.

“Reporters come and go. They do interviews with our Geeta. They publish her story in newspapers and magazines but so far nothing has come of it other than raising the poor child’s hopes,” Mrs Edhi told Dawn as Geeta looked around in awe at all the big camera lenses focussed on her and microphones pointed at her. In response she can only gesture and speak in sign language. Her wide expressive eyes are sad.

“If no-one comes forward to claim her this time as well, she will fall into depression once again. Normally, she is a very religious girl keeping both her God and ours happy. But if nothing happens she will refuse to pray again for days and be cross with her Bhagwan and our Allah. We have been through this several times before, too, and this time it is thanks to that Bollywood hero Salman Khan,” Mrs Edhi smiled before looking at Geeta. “We watched the movie together. She loved its ending where the child eventually reaches home,” she added.

Asked if she looks any different now from when she was found and brought to the Edhi Centre in Lahore, Mrs Edhi shakes her head. “She looks the same. Though she is a young woman now, her features have not changed. But I think her complexion has improved because then she used to be rather dark,” she said.

Mrs Edhi also said that she named the girl Geeta. “She wrote in Sanskrit that her mother used to call her Guddi. She doesn’t know her real name so initially I had named her Fatima. Then becoming convinced that she was Hindu after observing her ways I changed her name to Geeta,” she said.

“I’m used to working with people with all kinds of issues so her being deaf and mute has never caused a communication problem here. I understand her well,” Mrs Edhi pointed out.

“Geeta has made many friends at the Edhi Centre but she misses home. She makes hand signals to show that she wants to go home which, according to her, is surrounded by agriculture fields somewhere near a flowing river. She also makes signs to show an aeroplane flying high in which she wants to go back home,” Mrs Edhi said before turning to look at Edhi Sahib sitting quietly listening to them nearby and smiling. “My Geeta is smart, she knows her father [Edhi Sahib] will pay for her flight back home.” Geeta who seems to read lips also burst out laughing at that.

“But seriously, she misses home badly, even after so many years. She tells me she has four sisters and two brothers who are all normal, not deaf and mute like her. She also talks about her father and describes him as a very frail old man, who walked with a stick. God only knows if her parents are even alive now if they were that old 12 years ago. I have often encouraged her to move on with life. I have told her that I can find her a good husband, a Hindu boy if she likes, as she is of marriageable age now and no family has shown up looking for her until now but she doesn’t want that so for now I have let her be,” Mrs Edhi said.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2015

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