Raj - Lost and Found

A young man, Raj Gupta, is rocked with a shocking news. His foundation, his family, his world falls away under him. He learns he is a child of the gutter. He was adopted. His sense of self is crushed.

In a rage, Raj confronts his parents. Why did they not tell him? Was he trash, they picked from the gutter? In his mind, he is torn from his family, cast beneath them. A bastard.

Raj turns away from his family. He’s lost the little sister he loves. He resents his parents. He runs away, to find himself in the swarm of Allahabad, Alone. To battle his fear and confusion. Lost to the warm embrace of family.

He races away on his scooter, into the dark side of his soul. His journey stops late into the night. Looking for a hostel, he asks of a group of men in the shadows for help. They surround him, take his phone, his money, and his scooter. And beat him into the dust.

Raj struggles, wounded, wandering streets, raving at the thugs that robbed and beat him, and his lying parents. He thinks of his little sister. But, with no phone, he can’t talk to her, knowing only she will understand his pain.

He searches for someone who will lend a phone. A man agrees to loan his phone and takes Raj to his tent. He offers Raj milk and a ‘medicine’ for the pain of his beating. Hungry, Raj takes the offering.

Drugged and dazed, Raj realizes he is being molested. He runs, delirious, falling unconscious. Waking, he struggles to stand. Sad, afraid, nearly hysterical, he rants on about everyone being a liar. His mind flashes on times of laughter and love with his family.

He wanders among a crowd of strangers, seeing a little girl crying, alone. She’s lost her family. Raj feels her sense of loss. He knows the security of home and family, he left behind. He helps her find her mother. Seeing the mother’s joy at finding her daughter, he thinks of his own mother, and what anxiety she must be going through at his running away.

Raj passes among throngs of people standing on the shores of the holy river. They bathe in the river, believing it alleviates all pain. Does it really? He is tormented with the dilemma of so many questions and thoughts swirling through his mind.

He confesses his story to a fellow traveler, who tells him that it matters not whether he takes a holy dip; the emptiness and trauma he is feeling is because love and gratitude are missing in his life. He was born and left to die, but his destiny took a lucky turn, as he was bestowed with a loving family.

Raj is changed. He feels overwhelming gratitude to his loving parents. With his heart at peace, Raj takes a dip in the holy Ganga River. He is bathed in love.