Born again?

[Guest]

Born again?

4-year-old ‘returns’ home after 13 yrs

Tribune News Service

.

Aman identifies her relatives of the previous birth from a family album as her aunt, Ms Saroj, looks on at Saketri village. — A Tribune photograph

Panchkula, May 5

Life “after death” has come a full circle for four year old girl Aman Kaur. Thirteen years ago, two-year-old Gaurav had died after drowning in an overhead water tank. Gaurav has emerged from the dead in his rebirth as a girl, Aman.

Aman, now born in a Sikh family of Roopnagar, today reached village Saketri in search of her first family. Refusing to acknowledge Jarnail Singh and Shamsher Kaur as her parents, Aman who has never visited the village before, led them to a house in the village, saying that this was her real home.

What followed was high emotional drama as she rushed to the Vermas- Mr Satpal and Mrs Saroj Verma, calling them Mummy and Papa. The latter, initially sceptical that it was a ploy to emotionally blackmail them, soon had their hearts reach out to the girl, as she narrated incidents from the previous life. “This is emotionally very taxing for us. The pain of losing our son had waned over the years, but it all came back as she claimed that she was Gaurav,” said an emotional Mrs Saroj Verma.

The girl’s parents, Mr Jarnail Singh, an LIC officer and Ms Shamsher Kaur, a government school teacher in Ropar, say that since April 24, Aman started telling them that they were not her real parents. “She started talking like a boy, saying that her name was Gaurav Verma. She insisted that ‘his’ mother was not working and spent the whole day with her. Initially we thought it was a child’s prank, but she insisted that ‘his’ parents were in Saketri. So, we decided to get her here,” they say.

Once the trio reached the village, Mr Jarnail Singh enquired about the Verma’s and was shown the way to the latter’s goldsmith shop. “As we entered the shop, she let go of our hand and rushed to Mrs Verma, calling her Mummy. We explained the situation to the Verma’s, who looked bewildered. She went and sat in Mrs Verma’s lap, who asked her if she could lead them to the Verma’s house. She got up and quickly led them to their house,” said Mr Jarnail.

Mr Verma says that he thought it was a ploy by someone to cheat him. “But the girl reached the house and started enquiring about her aunt, who used to stay with us when Gaurav died in 1992. Gaurav was very attached to Saroj and would spend most of the time with her and her kids. I called my sister, Saroj, from her house in Landran village, and even from amongst the large crowd of onlookers, Aman could recognise her bua. Gaurav used to take one rupee from her Bua daily to buy papad, and as she went to my sister, Saroj, she asked her for one rupee. Many other instances followed which have forced us to think that this could be a re-birth,” he says.

After spending about five hours here, Mr Jarnail Singh decided to take her back to Roopnagar. Mr Verma’s son, and Gaurav’s elder brother, Johnny, who went to drop them at the bus stop on Mansa Devi Complex, were in tears as Aman begged him to come and meet ‘her’ in Roopnagar. “Our mind cautions us into accepting her as Gaurav, but the heart believes that he has come back. After his death, he had appeared in my dream and said that he would again come back. Now, it seems he has kept his promise,” says a misty eyed Gaurav’s aunt, Saroj.