A man from Himachal Pradesh who had been missing since 1980 finally returned home after 45 years. His memory came back following a recent head injury, leading him back to his village. The man, known now as Ravi Chaudhary but born as Rikhi Ram, reached Nadi village on November 15 with his wife and three children.
Rikhi was only sixteen when he left his home looking for work in 1980. He first worked at a hotel in Yamunanagar. During a trip to Ambala, he met with a major road accident that caused a serious head injury. He lost all memory of his past, including his own name. People in Haryana gave him a new name, Ravi Chaudhary, and he accepted it as his new identity. With no clue about his roots, he built a completely new life.
Later, he moved to Dadar in Mumbai and did small jobs to manage. Then, he shifted to Nanded in Maharashtra, where a college hired him. In 1994, he married Santoshi and they had two daughters and a son. His life was simple but steady, and he lived peacefully with his family.
Everything changed in 2025. After a minor accident, he began seeing old images in his dreams— a mango tree, a village swing, a narrow path to Sataun, and a courtyard of a house he hadn’t seen in decades. At first he ignored these dreams, but they became more frequent and stronger. Slowly he realised these were not dreams but forgotten memories returning.
Since he had limited schooling, he asked a college student for help. They searched for Nadi village and Sataun on Google together. A phone number of a local café in Sataun appeared, which led them to a man named Rudra Prakash in Nadi. The final confirmation came through a call with a relative, MK Chaubey, who recognised the details from Rikhi’s broken memories.
When Rikhi returned home on November 15, it felt like destiny had opened an old chapter. The village welcomed him with drums, garlands and joy. His brothers and sisters — Durga Ram, Chander Mohan, Chandramani, Kaushalya Devi, Kala Devi and Sumitra Devi — held him tightly, crying endlessly. The family had believed for decades that he had died.
His younger brother Durga Ram could barely speak. He said through tears, “We believed he had left this world long ago. Seeing him stand before us after 45 years feels like witnessing a second birth. This is nothing short of a miracle.”
There was another twist in the story. Rikhi was born into a Brahmin family and lived that life until the age of sixteen. But after losing his memory in Haryana, the people around him gave him a Rajput identity, and he lived his entire adult life following their customs. Now, with his memory back, he has returned to his original identity and roots as a Brahmin in his home village.
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