DHAKA: A Bangladeshi man in his 80s has been reunited with his nearly 100-year-old mother after about 70 years thanks to social media.

Abdul Kuddus Munsi was sent to live with his uncle when he was about 10, but lost touch with his family after running away and being adopted by two sisters.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” the 82-year-old said from Brahmanbaria, the eastern border district where he was born in 1939.

In April a businessman posted a video of Kuddus on Facebook, appealing for help finding his parents. All Kuddus could remember about his first decade was the name of his parents and his village.

A distant relative in the village spotted the post and informed Kuddus that his mother, Mongola Nessa, thought to be in her late 90s, was still alive.

So Kuddus — himself a father to three grown-up sons and five daughters — travelled about 350 kilometres (220 miles) from the western city of Rajshahi, to end the decades of estrangement.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2021