For some Facebook is a bane, but some it is a boon. But for this Andhra Pradesh-origin NRI, now based in the United States, the social media giant turned into a stroke of luck as it helped reconnect with her long-lost sister after almost four decades.

The non-resident Indian Jyothi Edla Rudrapathi never met or got word from her sister Kamala after the latter married a Mizoram Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constable in 1980 and moved to Mizoram.

On July 15, she posted a request on Mizoram News, a Facebook group, seeking help from its members in locating her sister. She also attached her photo as a five-year-old with Kamala and her husband Hmingliana.

                        (Image source from: Aldrin Meco Arthassy Lalnunsiama‎)

Kamala was located at Lawipu on the outskirts of Aizawl hours after the post was widely shared on social media.

Rudrapathi told local publications that her brother-in-law, from Mizoram’s Sialsuk village, married her sister when he was posted in Andhra Pradesh.

The family lost contact after the couple moved to Mizoram and efforts to track down them for 39 years did not work out.

In 1993, her parents Edla Joseph and Edla Karunamma went to a CRPF camp near their village but were told that their son-in-law had left the service.

Rudrapathi said her father died in 2010. Her mother, now 86, has been beside herself after speaking to Kamala.

Kamala said her husband died of cancer in 2013. They had four children, the eldest of whom died in infancy. The other three are now married.

“I made several attempts to reconnect with my parents and sister but could not do so because of financial constraints,” she told reporters in Aizawl a couple of days ago.

By Sowmya Sangam