The tense Indo-Bangla Petrapole border in North 24-Parganas, where both Bangladeshi and Indian citizens have gathered due to the current turmoil in the neighbouring country, was scene of an unusual event recently.
Last week, locals found a man in his early 40s in ragged clothes solving mathematical problems with a stick on wet soil under a tree near Petrapole Bazar. Locals alerted police, given the situation. Upon probe, police found that the man, who seemed disoriented, was one Amit Kumar Prasad, a mathematics teacher from UP’s Gorakhpur, who has been missing for over a decade. Local police, with the help of Ham radio enthusiasts, reunited Prasad with his family. His father, Gama Prasad, came to the Petrapole Police Station with his relatives from Bargo in Gorakhpur, marking an end to years of search for him.
Family members said Prasad used to teach maths at a school in their home town for several years before he went missing. Gama Prasad said: “Besides teaching students at the school, my son taught mathematics to more than 250 students from poor families in at least five neighbouring villages - free of cost. His love for mathematics began during childhood and he started teaching early. Later, he suffered from a mental ailment and went missing. We looked for him for years, all in vain. We never expected to see him alive after so many years.”
Parimal Roy, a Ham radio operator, said: “Locals found him solving some mathematical equations on wet soil. When they asked him for his identity, he didn’t reply and went further away to the riverbank and continued solving equations. He told them to leave him alone, in Hindi, after they persisted in questioning him, at which they informed the police.”
Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of West Bengal Radio Club, said: “Police contacted us to help Online locate Prasad’s family. I spoke to the man and circulated his photo in the network of Ham radio operators across India to start a search for his family. Later, we got in touch with his father.”
