19 yrs on, Basanti awaits missing husband’s return

“He is alive, and he will surely return to me,” she says with quiet conviction, as her belief remains firm despite the long absence of her husband and the silence surrounding his whereabouts.

- POST NEWS NETWORK

For the past 19 years, Basanti Nayak of Kuhudi village in Puri district has been waiting for her missing husband’s return. Now aged 60, she continues to observe the Savitri Brata with unwavering devotion, rekindling her hope year after year that her husband, Prafulla Nayak, will come back to her. In 2006, Prafulla travelled to Bangalore with a fellow villager to work as a labourer. That was the last time Basanti saw him. A few months later, a message arrived: “Prafulla is missing, and we cannot find him.” De-