ARLA/CLUSTER: Radioamadores indianos auxiliam o recontro familiar durante os enormes festivais religiosos

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Ham radio operators help unite family

Dedicated search by amateur radio enthusiasts, working with a few
facts, ends in joyous reunion

A few days after the Gangasagar Mela, the annual religious fair in
West Bengal, Ambarish Nag Biswas was told by Kolkata’s health officer
about a 25-year-old man admitted in a local government hospital,
pining to go home.

“When we met him, he could hardly speak. He had head injuries,” said
Mr. Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club (Amateur Club), a
group of ham radio enthusiasts.

With the help of the interpreter, they found that the man’s name was
Dhansekaran, that he was a native of Vellore district, that he had
ended up in Kolkata by mistake and had lost all his belongings on a
train.

Mr. Biswas and his team of ham radio operators took up the task of
locating his family. “Dhansekaran was from a place near a
Sathyanarayana temple in Vellore district, he was lost in Kolkata, and
we had his photo — this was all we had to work with,” says Mr. Biswas.
They sent out WhatsApp pictures and videos and requested 37 police
personnel in Kolkata to help find his family.

Family traced

Over a month later, his family was traced. Dhanasekaran was a resident
of Sholingur, Vellore. His aged father, a daily wage worker, broke
down on hearing his son’s voice over phone. The team then arranged his
travel to Kolkata and arranged for their return too. “We were very
happy to have finally found our boy,” cried Dhanasekaran’s uncle, who
had also gone to Kolkata to bring him home. “He was supposed to go to
Gujarat for work but somehow ended up in Kolkata. He has big dreams to
help his family.”

On Monday morning, Dhanasekaran, his father and his uncle landed in
Chennai and headed to their home town. “The idea is to put this radio
into best use. Our motive is to unite families, and we will continue
doing it,” said Mr. Biswas.

Read the Hindu Times story at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/west-bengal-ham-radio-operators-help-unite-family-in-tn/article17931873.ece

Our thanks to Greg KI6GIG and 'Raju' VU2JFA for the above information