14 year old Maniram was found alone and trembling at a railway station by SATHI. After a brief conversation, he revealed that his parents passed away when he was little and that he now stayed with his grandparents. “They are poor and I am not able to go to school. They force me to do household chores and field work. So I ran away,” he said. We brought him to the shelter and through counselling came to know that he was from Mankapur, U.P. But it was only after repeated interactions, that Maniram started telling the truth. “My parents are alive. I don’t like to study. I got angry and left home,” he said. He said that he went to Lucknow and worked in a hotel. When he did not get paid for his work for a long time, he ran away from there and was found by SATHI. During counselling, he was explained the importance of education and was told that only his parents could give him that. It took some time for Maniram to change his mind but after numerous sessions, he agreed to go home and continue studies. He started crying and expressed his desire to meet his mother. He gave his father’s contact number who was elated to hear about his son! Maniram had left from home a month earlier to visit his uncle in Jalandhar, Punjab but had run away mid-way. His parents were guided on how they could take care of Maniram and support him if he wanted to learn anything apart from studies too. Maniram then returned back home with his father by the order of CWC.