If this was the first sentence of a fictional story, it would have continued with the kidnappers sending a ransom note, and the police tracing the guilty and restoring the boy to his parents and living happily ever after.

But in real life, that hasn't happened. There has been no ransom note, no contact of any sort from the abductors of seven-year-old Mohil Mordhara. And his family continues to grope in the dark for some sort of assurance.

It's almost two years since the boy went missing, but everytime the phone rings, his family-members utter a silent prayer. But with more hopes dashed than anyone cares to remember, the family and its friends are now depending on their bargains with the Almighty.

Mohil's uncle Manubahi has been walking barefoot -- he vowed he wouldn't wear shoes till the boy returned -- neighbours, all of whom doted on the boy, have sworn to walk to Shirdi, Dwarka, Virpur Jalaram, Chotila.

But nothing seems to work. Not the oaths, not the posters printed and pasted all over the State, not the rewards offered by the government, not even the features on the popular `India's Most Wanted' show on Zee TV.

``We've checked every caller's information'', says Mohil's father Rasikbhai. If the Mordhara family still hopes, it's because of two incidents: the Dushyant Hinduja abduction case in Rajkot and the Ruchi kidnapping case. And Home Minister Haren Pandya's promise to turn over the Mohil case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

``If the Ruchi case could be transferred to the CBI within days of her disappearance, why not our case? Is our Mohil less precious?'', asks Rasikbhai. ``From the day she was abducted, we prayed for her. When she was found, we were delirious with joy... it gave us hope that our boy, too, could be found''.

In a letter to Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, the Mordharas have sought the transfer of the case to the CBI, but that has not happened.

The investigators -- first the Rajkot police, then the CID Crime Branch, and again the Rajkot police -- have not been able to establish any motive for the abduction. Says Rajkot Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha, ``We have investigated each and every lead, but they took us nowhere. Now it's two years old, and there are no fresh leads. But we're checking every bit of information that trickles in''.

In the meantime, the Mordhera family lives in hope.