In a story straight out of a Bollywood screenplay, Himachal’s Rikhi Ram — known for decades as Ravi Chaudhary — has finally found his way back to the life he lost 45 years ago.
In a story straight out of a Bollywood screenplay, Himachal’s Rikhi Ram — known for decades as Ravi Chaudhary — has finally found his way back to the life he lost 45 years ago. Rikhi’s story began when a devastating head injury at the age of 16 wiped his memory clean. Disoriented and alone, he drifted nearly 1,600 km away to Nanded, Maharashtra, where he got a new name, a new identity, and eventually, a new family. He married, built a home, and raised three children — all without the recollection of the world he had once called his own.
But destiny wasn’t done with him yet.
A few months ago, a minor head bump rattled something deep within him. Sudden flashes — winding village lanes, lush mango trees, emerald hills, and a place called “Sataun” pierced the silence of his forgotten past.
Those fragments disturbed him, yet filled him with a hope. Sharing these “visions” with his wife, he turned to a college student for help. Together, they began tracing the whispers of his memory on the internet.
A phone number — belonging to a cafe in Sataun — became the first real bridge to the life he had lost. One call turned into many, until villagers confirmed the impossible – Rikhi Ram had been found.
Born in Nadi village of Himachal’s Sataun region in Sirmaur district, Rikhi had left home in 1980 to work at a hotel in Haryana’s Yamunanagar. An accident on his way to Ambala erased his identity, leaving his family scrambling for answers with no phones, no updates, and no hope. His parents died heartbroken, never knowing their son was alive.
Renamed as Ravi Choudhary, Rikhi migrated to Mumbai for work and eventually settled in Nanded, where he married Santoshi in 1994 and raised his three children. For decades, not a single memory of the serene hills or his childhood home returned.
On November 15, Rikhi finally returned to Nadi village, his wife and children by his side. What followed was a spectacle of pure emotion — siblings embracing him through garlands and tears as the entire village gathered to witness a reunion that had seemed impossible for more than four decades.