On Friday, her father Wazir Singh, mother Bimla Kaur, and son Surinder Singh took the woman back home from the mental asylum here. The efforts of a doctor from Himachal Pradesh and local social workers had paid off.The story of Surjit Kaur's disappearance and her reunion with her family is full of gaps. What follows is all that can be pieced together from the facts.Sometime in 1987, Surjit Kaur, aged about 30, disappeared. She had begun to show signs of mental disturbance, brought on, allegedly, by her husband Balraj Sodhi's alcoholism and abusiveness.

Her father, Wazir Singh, a tailor, registered a first-information report in the Jalalabad police station. Police arrested four men on suspicion. One of them had said the woman had last been seen in a truck owned byone Bibi.But at this point things took a strange turn. The assistant sub-inspector of the police station told the family that Surjit Kaur's body had been found in a highly decomposed state, and that villagers had burnt it. Wazir Singh accepted this with resignation, took the ashes home.

In December, the same year, a woman found in Nadiad, Gujarat, was admitted to the mental asylum in Ahmedabad on a court order. She was described as schizophrenic, aloof, but never violent. She said she was Kamala. The asylum staff could not understand the little she spoke, which was in Punjabi.And there were many discrepancies in what she said. At one time the woman said her father's name was Iqbal Singh, and another time she described him as `Master'. A jathedar from the local Saraspur Gurudwara spoke at length to her, but could only gather from her accent and mannerisms that she was from the Faridkot region.

Then in August 1988, her condition improved, and she gave her husband's name as Balbir Singh. She also mentioned`Pippi' (her son's pet name). The local authorities wrote to the Faridkot police in September, sending her photograph and mentioning her identifying marks. The next month they replied that no such person had gone missing from the area.

Then on, from 1988-1992, five letters were sent to Balbir Singh, who she said was her husband, at the address she gave. No reply. And the letters were not returned either.

Since the address was in Jalalabad, the authorities then wrote to the Naal Police Station, in that area. This was in December 1992. The police station never replied to the three letters sent there. Then in 1993, a constable from Naal reached the mental asylum, saw Surjit Kaur, but went back saying that no such person had been reported missing there.

The breakthrough came five years later, just by chance. The Himachal Pradesh government had sent Dr Sarita Jaiswal on deputation to the asylum. This psychiatrist, who knew Punjabi, managed to gather in January this year that the patient's father was calledWazir Singh. She also got the address: Basti Balochewali, Mohalla Gangama, Ferozepur Dist.

A registered letter was sent to Wazir Singh on January 11. Apparently, Wazir Singh did not receive it till April 15. He sent a letter and telegram on April 22. Wazir Singh wrote that the woman was indeed Surjit Kaur, his daughter, and that the family was coming to Ahmedabad to take her back.Why the delay? Wazir Singh said he had met with an accident. Surjit Kaur's mother, Bimla Kaur, says she first suspected that her husband had no intention of bringing back her daughter, and even suffered a heart attack. But Wazir Singh says he was forced to wait. He also contacted Surjit Kaur's in-laws. He said an aunt-in-law and the son were delighted with the news.But Wazir Singh is not sure how his son-in-law, Balraj Sodhi (not Singh, as Surjit Kaur had said), will react. ``I am sure he wants her dead. He has remarried and has two daughters from that marriage. I suppose he will hate it to allot some property to my daughter,'' hesaid.

But Surinder, the younger of Surjit's two sons, who was here, stands by her. ``She's my mother. She will recover soon.''