1,200km from home, stranger and ChatGPT help lost pilgrim return

Dubai: When an elderly Punjab pilgrim who struggled with memory lost his way in Amritsar and somehow ended up more than 1,200km away in Bihar, he had little to help him find his way home.

He could barely explain where he came from. He spoke only Punjabi. But he remembered one crucial detail — the name of his village.

That fragment of information, the kindness of a stranger and some help from ChatGPT eventually brought him home.

Chaman Lal, a resident of Fatehgarh Gujran village in Ludhiana district, had travelled to Amritsar on September 11 to visit Sri Harmandir Sahib under the Punjab government’s Chief Minister Pilgrimage Scheme, NDTV reported.

His family said he had long experienced memory-related problems.

At some point during the pilgrimage, Chaman Lal became separated from his group and wandered towards Amritsar railway station. He then boarded a train and travelled hundreds of kilometres in the wrong direction, eventually reaching Gaya in Bihar.

A stranger stops to help

That was where Neeraj, a local resident who works in the construction sector, spotted him.

The elderly man appeared distressed and hungry and was unable to properly explain who he was or how he had arrived in Gaya.

Neeraj could have simply helped him with a meal and moved on.

Instead, he took Chaman Lal home.

For the next four days, Neeraj and his family gave him food and shelter while trying to work out where he belonged, according to NDTV.

Communication itself was difficult because Chaman Lal spoke only Punjabi.

But there was one clue: Fatehgarh Gujran.

ChatGPT joins the search

Neeraj began searching online using the village name and the little information he had.

He turned to ChatGPT as well as general internet searches, trying to establish where Fatehgarh Gujran was and whether it could lead him to Chaman Lal’s family.

It wasn’t an instant answer.

The search continued for three days before Neeraj eventually traced Fatehgarh Gujran to the area near Machhiwara Sahib in Punjab’s Ludhiana district.

He now had a destination.

But what Neeraj did next transformed an online search into an extraordinary act of kindness.

Rather than put the elderly man on a train and hope he reached the right place, Neeraj decided to take him home himself.

A 1,200km journey home

He accompanied Chaman Lal all the way from Gaya to Ludhiana and then travelled with him towards Machhiwara.

Even then, the search was not over.

Once there, Neeraj began showing Chaman Lal’s photograph to local residents, asking whether anybody recognised him.

Eventually, a resident, Master Krishan Lal, did.

Word quickly reached Chaman Lal’s family. His grandson, Sukhchain Singh, rushed to Machhiwara and confirmed that the elderly man Neeraj had brought more than 1,200km across India was his missing grandfather.

The family had meanwhile been desperately searching for him.

Sukhchain said relatives and villagers had looked for Chaman Lal in Amritsar, informed police and circulated his photograph on social media in the hope that somebody might recognise him.

Their search finally ended because a stranger in Bihar had refused to leave an elderly man to fend for himself.

Family welcomes the man who brought him home

Chaman Lal’s family expressed their gratitude to Neeraj for caring for him and personally ensuring that he reached home safely.

They welcomed Neeraj with garlands and offered him money and clothes.

For Neeraj, however, helping the elderly pilgrim had become a personal responsibility.

After seeing Chaman Lal alone and in distress, he felt he could not simply walk away. Once he had the village name to work with, he was determined to find where the elderly man belonged.

Technology helped narrow the search.

But it was a stranger’s persistence — first taking Chaman Lal into his home, then searching for three days and finally accompanying him on the long journey across India — that completed it.

And more than 1,200km from where he had lost his way, Chaman Lal finally made it home.