Hard to believe but Facebook has managed to unite two brothers who got separated 12 years ago.
While the younger brother Santosh Domale was with the family in Pune, the elder one Ankush Domale had turned into a Sikh, changed his name to Gurubaaj singh and lived in a gurdwara in Moga, Punjab.
Gurubaaj Singh said he ran away from his home in 2001 after his maternal uncle beat him up for damaging his bike in an accident.
Gurbaaj hitchhiked on a truck going towards Nanded and lived outside the gurdwara serving devotees. Here, the Hindu boy decided to embrace Sikhism.
But he said he kept trying too look for his family.
But the only way he could do it was through the telephone number of the same uncle. But he could not get through since his family had shifted to another house.
Then last week, Gubaaj made an attempt to find his younger brother on Facebook and there he was!
“I searched for Santosh on Facebook. He was there. I immediately recognised he was my brother. He accepted my friend request. I told him I was his missing brother,” said Gurbaaj.
His mother Hemlata Domale and brother thought someone was playing a prank on them.
Then she asked Gurbaaj some questions only he was supposed to know and he answered each query correctly.
“I knew he’d come back. I didn’t file a missing complaint as I was afraid of going to the police. His father passed away two years before he left home,” she said.
Santosh said that at first, he did not believe Gurbaaj’s claim. “But when he gave all the details and spoke to me on the phone, I realised he was my brother. So I accepted his friend request”.
Gurubaaj even remembered the names of all his neighbours.
For the Domale family, it does not matter if Ankush had changed his religion.
Gurbaaj too said he would continue to practice Sikhism since the religion had given him a new identity and peace of mind.
