A young boy who was set afloat on a raft in an Indian river eleven years ago, after his family thought him dead from a snake bite, has returned home with a wife and daughter.
At eight years old, Subash Bag was bitten by a poisonous snake in Sonapalasi village in West Bengal. His family, taking him for dead, set him afloat in a raft on Damodar river, as called for by their ancient customs.
The raft ran aground near Chandipur village where an old man rescued the ill young boy. After many days of treatment, he finally recovered but could not remember where he had come from. The boy remained in the village, grew up, married and had a daughter.
One day, while running errands at Manteswar, in Burdwan district, he was recognized by a blood relative in the marketplace. The relative informed the boy's father, Sambhu, who travelled to Chandipur and heard the rest of the tale from the family that had rescued his son.
Sambhu brought his son and family back to Sonapalasi where an unending stream of visitors has been calling to see the boy who came back from the dead.
Stranger than Fiction Magazine is your premier source for tales of the bizarre and extraordinary. Published quarterly. Established 2004.
Fall 2004 issue (here)
