US woman meets her saviour in Lucknow | Lucknow News

Mahogany and her friend Christopher, accompanied by this TOI reporter, reached the home of septuagenarian SunitaNigam in Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon.

Sunita is the former superintendent of the children’s shelter home,Lilawati Bal Griha, in the city’s Aishbagh area.
It was an emotional reunion for the two women. “My daughter has returned,” exclaimed Sunita while embracing Mahogany.
Sunita also served her snacks, including veg kebabs, which she had prepared. “I gave blood and name to this girl. She is a daughter to me,” she said.
“Rakhi was very ill when she was recovered from Charbagh railway station in 2000. We admitted her to KGMU under Dr Ashish Vakul, who was senior surgeon in the pediatric department. He performed colostomy surgery and for more than 10-days, she was kept in the hospital. There she was administered two units of blood.”

After recovery she was brought to the Lilawati Bal Griha where she lived for the next two years before being adopted by Carol Brand from Minnesota. However, her ordeal started right when she boarded the US-bound flight. It turned out that Carol had submitted her fake profile for adoption. She was allegedly a drug addict and alcoholic, who left Rakhi with a life-long trauma by her abusive excesses.
Her tribulations came to an end in 2016 when Carol died by suicide. Mahogany found a piece of paper among her foster mother’s belongings which showed that she was adopted from Lucknow in 2002.
“I feel sorry for Rakhi, that Carol Brand turned out to be a cruel human being. We used to receive positive report of Rakhi every year from Carol, but the reality was different,” said Sunita who took care of over 400 children between January 1994 and April 2014 as the superintendent and house mother of the orphanage that was run by trustees— including Daya Rani Malviya, Begum Hamida Habibullah, Sunila Kawar and Leela Ram Kumar Bhargav.
Romello Malviya, son of Daya Rani Malviya, had read out the TOI report to Sunita and she immediately identified Rakhi.
Overwhelmed after meeting Sunita, Mahogany exchanged her phone number, address and even asked for the recipe of the veg kebab.
“Meeting Sunita is the best thing of my journey in search of roots. She is no less than a mother. Just knowing that her blood is flowing in my veins is overwhelming. I will keep on searching for my biological parents, but will always be in touch with Sunita,” said Mahogany, who is in Lucknow till the first week of October.
Sunita will visit the US next year to meet her relatives and also call on Mahogany at Minnesota.
TOI reporter played the role of translator too since Sunita is not conversant with English and Mahogany doesn’t understand Hindi.