A 16-year-old boy from Himachal’s Sirmaur district, who went missing after losing his memory due to a head injury, has been reunited with his family members after 45 years after another blow to his head restored his memory.
Poignant scenes were witnessed when Rikhi, now known as Ravi Chaudhary, returned to his native village of Nadi near Nahan along with his wife and children last week. Rikhi’s family members were in tears as they believed he was no more.
Family members and villagers gave Rikhi a warm welcome with musical instruments and flowers as he reunited with his brother and sisters – Durga Ram, Chander Mohan, Chandramani, Kaushalya Devi, Kala Devi and Sumitra Devi – who wept to see him alive after more than four decades.
Rikhi was working in a hotel in Haryana’s Yamunanagar when he met with a major road accident while on his way to Ambala. He suffered a head injury and disappeared in 1980.
The head injury was so severe that it resulted in a complete memory wipe, with Rishi even forgetting his identity and name. Later his friends named him Ravi Chaudhary.
With no memories of his past, Rikhi moved to Mumbai, survived by doing odd jobs, and later settled in Maharashtra’s Nanded after starting college. He later married his wife Santoshi and has three children including two daughters and a son.
However, a few months ago another head injury changed his life again. Old faded images of the mango tree in his village, Nadi, the narrow paths and the courtyard of a house in a place called Sataun began as memories.
Rikhi sought help from a college student to find Satauna, and while searching Nadi and Satauna’s village on Google, they came across the cafe’s phone number.
Rikhi called the number and interacted with a person named Rudra Prakash. As word spread, one of Rikhi’s relatives, MK Chaubey, acknowledged Rikhi’s faded past and was reunited with his family members in Nadi after more details were correlated.
“Though nothing is impossible, such cases of recovery of memory after injury have been rarely documented and the exact cause could be known after a medical examination of the brain,” mental health expert Dr. Aaditya Sharma.
Published – 21 Nov 2025 12:37 IST
