‘My world has changed; if I go out, I'll get lost': Stranded abroad for 42 years, Kerala man finally back home
After he flew to Bahrain in 1983 with dreams of becoming another Gulf-Malayali success story, Chandran Gopalan is finally back home — for the first time in 42 years.
Three years after reaching Bahrain, Thiruvananthapuram-native Chandran's life turned upside down. With the death of his employer, Chandran lost his passport and other travel documents, making him an undocumented immigrant. His focus then turned to keeping away from the eyes of the law.
His plight became known to the public in Kerala in 2020 when he was detained by Bahrain police following a tiff with another expatriate from Kerala. He has finally returned home on Wednesday, following the intervention of the Pravasi Legal Cell and with the support of the Indian Embassy and Bahrain's Ministry of Interior.
Now 64 years old, Chandran says, 'I have returned empty-handed. Even the air ticket was arranged by the embassy. The only relief was that I could meet my mother, Sanchalakshi, now 95. My father, Gopalan, died in 1985 — two years after I left for Bahrain to work as a mason.'
He says the future is bleak and that 'health is not on my side'.
'Back home, I have to track down my relatives and friends. While I remain a bachelor, two generations have been born in my family. The world I had left behind in Kerala has changed. If I go out, I will get lost,' said Chandran.
Pravasi Legal Cell's Bahrain chapter president Sudheer Thirunilath said Chandran's case came to their attention in 2020. 'It was Chandran's first tryst with police since he landed in Bahrain and remained elusive after all documents were lost. Some such people, with no valid documents, land up with the police very soon. For Chandran, it took decades. He was jailed for three months.'
He said that Chandran's deportation was made difficult due to his lack of documents.
At the same time, Chandran's mother's wait for her son was telecast on Malayalam channel Kairali TV's popular 'Pravasalokam' programme about Keralites abroad. 'After watching the TV programme, someone informed Chandran that his mother is still alive. For the first time, he expressed a wish to return home to unite with his family,' said Sudheer.
Pravasi Legal Cell and other well-wishers then took up the matter. As Chandran had no documents to prove his identity, they tracked down his family in Thiruvananthapuram and collected the required documents that allowed him to go through the long-winding legal procedure to head back home.
'His journey from despair to dignity is a testament to the power of community support, dedicated humanitarian effort, and the benevolence of the Kingdom of Bahrain's authorities,' said Sudheer.
Chandran had left Kerala at the age of 22 and worked as a mason at a company in Bahrain for three years. But with the death of his employer, he lost both his job and his documents.
'Since then, I worked as a painter and moved from one place to another looking for work. For several years, I lived on the outskirts of Manama. I used to write letters to my family in the beginning, but a few years later, that stopped — from both sides. I had to remain in Bahrain as a person without any documents or an address of my own,' Chandran says.
He now lives with the family of his elder brother, Mohanan. Mohanan's son-in-law, Suresh, says, 'When nothing was heard from Chandran, our family had approached many people. But he could not be tracked down.'
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