Runaway kid wins academic accolades, gets married

Born in somewhere and brought up in the runaway kids’ home, K Santosh, is fortunate to have found a better half and tie the nuptial knot in the midst of his friends in Vijayawada.

The Navajeevan Bala Bhavan, a rehabilitation home for the run away children, was electrified on Thursday as one of their inmates married and the wedding was blessed by everyone, including some dignitaries from the city.

Santosh was found in the city railway station 12 years ago. He was brought to the Navajeevan Bala Bhavan and the volunteers helped him to recollect his childhood but in vain. The attempts by the volunteers to establish the identity of his parents and restore him to the family failed.

Finally he stayed back in the home and started going to school. He successfully completed his school and the college education with the support he had received from the rehabilitation home. He then, did his post graduation in social work (M S W) and passed with distinction from the Acharya Nagarjuna University. A recipient of gold medal, Santosh decided to continue the good work being done by the Navajeevan and found a place in the national children network – Young At Risk – in New Delhi.

He moved on to the national capital with pride and began to work coordinating the missing children network across the country. It was here he found Sunitha, an MBA student from Warangal.

Impressed by the hardships that Santosh had undergone to reach to the present position, Sunitha proposed to be his life partner and they both agreed. Interestingly, Sunitha’s parents too have accepted the proposal and performed the marriage in the presence of other run away children at the Navajeevan.

“I am extremely happy to see a child from this place getting married and having his own family. We have several such children, who left their parents for some reason or the other and are today developed into full citizen,” proudly admitted the Navajeevan director, Fr Thomas Koshy, while blessing the new couple at their marriage.

The inmates of the Navajeevan have arranged lunch for the new couple greeting them with claps, whistles and film songs – the language that they knew from the days of their platform life.