Late mother’s memories come alive

Madikeri: The painful and desperate wait for Hrithiksha, a  school-going girl from Kushalnagar in Kodagu to get back her mother’s lost mobile phone — that had photos and videos of her mother — ended yesterday after she received the phone that had gone missing at the Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Madikeri.

In May this year, the girl’s mother Prabha was admitted to KIMS that was converted as a COVID Hospital. Prabha passed away on May 16.  Hrithiksha and her father T.R. Naveen Kumar of Gummanakolli village too had tested positive but recovered. While releasing Prabha’s body,  Hrithiksha realised that the mobile phone was not returned to them.

Later, she made a fervent appeal to the Kodagu Deputy Commissioner Charulata Somal, MLAs K.G. Bopaiah and M.P. Appachu Ranjan and also to the staff of KIMS to find her mother’s mobile phone.

Holding a letter that went viral, the girl said the phone had some of the best photos of her mother and she has to lead a life without her (mother). “Please find and return my mother’s phone,” she had appealed.

“I have become an orphan now and my mother’s phone contained all her good photos. All her memories are stored there. If someone has taken or has found my mother’s phone, please return it,” the fifth standard girl wrote in the heart-wrenching letter.

 Hrithiksha’s letter prompted the district administration to intervene but despite all efforts, the phone could not be traced. While Naveen Kumar had lodged a complaint with the Kushalnagar Police stating that his wife’s mobile phone along with the SIM card was lost in the hospital, KIMS authorities had lodged the complaint with the Madikeri Police.

Yesterday, KIMS Medical Superintendent landed at Madikeri Police Station and handed over a phone saying that it was found in Hospital’s store room. Later, the Police found that the smartphone had many pictures of Prabha and her daughter. IMEI number of the phone and the phone that went missing matched. Police contacted Hrithiksha’s family and Kodagu SP Kshama Mishra gave away the phone to the girl at her office.

[Refer news item: ‘My late mother’s phone is filled with her memories: Girl pleads with Kodagu DC, MLAs to find stolen phone from COVID Hospital’ in SOM dated May 23, 2021