Salem: “After 33 years, I have found my lost daughter. I am so happy. She resembles my husband. And she is my daughter,” says 60-year-old Kamalam. Her daughter, Pottiamma, who was lost in the Salem Government General Hospital over three decades ago, is a Swedish citizen and a mother of three children. And her daughter is not the rustic Pottiamma anymore. She is Jeeva John of Sweden.
When Pottiamma was two years old, Kamalam walked out of her husband’s house in Pattuthorai village in Attur taluk, unable to bear his torture. When the little child fell sick, Kamalam took her to the Salem Government Hospital for treatment. However, Pottiamma went missing at the hospital when Kamalam dozed off.
From Salem, Pottiamma was taken to Chennai, where she was given away in adoption to a Swedish couple. Pottiamma, who been renamed Jeeva, grew up in Sweden and married a Swedish national.
However, her gloomy past haunted Jeeva.
She was back in Salem in the first week of January in search of her biological mother. She knocked on the doors of the Indian Council of Child Welf-are, the district child welfare committee and the Salem Commissi-onerate.
Salem commissioner K.C. Mahali directed special sub-inspector A. Rajendran to trace Jeeva’s mother.
Meanwhile, Kama-lam’s relatives saw Jeeva’s appeal in a newspaper to trace her mother. Immediately, she rushed to the police, but by then John had returned to Sweden. “From our inquiries, it appears that Sengamalai is the biological mother of Jeeva,” said Rajendran.
Now, the district child welfare committee has sent a mail to John about her mother. “Only afer a DNA test, we can confirm if Sengamalai is the mother of John,” Xavier of Child Welfare Committee said.
However, villagers of Pattuthorai of Attur taluk claim that Kamalam had lost her daughter three decades ago and John could be her daughter. “She resembles her father,” said N. Marimuthu, ex-sarpanch of Pattuthorai.
However, officials say only when John visits India this May can it be confirmed if Kamalam indeed is her mother. Kamalam is desperately waiting to see her “Swedish daughter”.
