(Almost said loved there, but how this story ends is up to you and the youniverse.)
![A balloon seller outside some small shops is almost completely obscured by masses of Indian tricolour balloons with some red heart balloons interspersed.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJWDC8CUYAABlqZ.jpg)
Flashback to the eve of another Indian great's birthday...
It's 1st October and Maharashtra is in the throes of election fever.
Tarun is carried away by an election rally, dancing away from his comfort zone of home, neighbours and balloon seller.
There's something almost Pied Piperesque about him being drawn away from safety. Strange one should think of Pied Piper...
Tarun doesn't have a visible disability. He does however dance to the beat of a different drum - he lives with autism.
![Margaret W. Tarrant illustration of the 'Poor Lame Boy' in the book The Pied Piper of Hamelin. A disabled boy sits loosely grasping his crutch in one hand while propping himself up with the other hand on a rock. He is watching all the other children dance away in front of him into the hazy distance. The caption below reads 'One was lame and could not dance the whole of the way.'](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJWS5T7UUAA6pzH.jpg)
If what comes next for this 16 year old student of Jai Vakeel special school in Sewri isn't dangerous enough, Tarun is also without his usual thick spectacles, as they broke the previous day.
/The music stopped and I stood still/
![Tarun smiles broadly into the camera; he is developing the beginnings of his first moustache. His hair neatly combed, he is wearing thick spectacles and a blue striped t-shirt. <br />
<br />
http://bit.ly/find-tarun <br />
#FindTarun #WhereIsTarunGupta #MissingChild #Disability](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJWXZNIU4AAO_JS.jpg)
Left alone against my will/
Tarun was lost and couldn't find his way home.
It's upsetting to think of him at that moment, so let's distract ourselves with some data. Sobering, bleak but a diffuse kind of upset.
indiatoday.in/education-toda…
But as this article points out, the stories behind the NCRB statistics can be mutilayered and complex.
But not in Tarun's case.
thehindu.com/society/indias…
#MissingChild
Though the process does pose challenges due to presence of disability, it's nothing compared to the exponential whammy of being a child + missing + disabled in India. (Worse if an invisible disability.)
Not for want of trying on @vinodd2017's part.
Tarun's father Vinod Gupta filed FIR 248/2019 the same day at MRA Marg police station.
![1st page of FIR 248/2019 filed on 1 October 2019 at MRA Marg police station, Mumbai stating that Tarun, a child with multiple disabilities was missing. <br />
<br />
#FindTarun #WhereIsTarunGupta #http://bit.ly/find-tarun](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJW2Ii6VAAA6Iao.jpg)
Like Tarun and the Maharashtra Govt, it too is missing!
mhpolice.maharashtra.gov.in/Citizen/MH/Pub…
![Screen grab of Maharashtra Police FIR search page https://www.mhpolice.maharashtra.gov.in/Citizen/MH/PublishedFIRs.aspx <br />
<br />
As on 14 Nov 2019, no FIRs were filed online by MRA Marg police station between 1st and 3 October. Or even till date.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJXV_95VUAAP4QH.jpg)
The boy whose father @vinodd2017 says "does not even cross the road by himself" boarded a train at CSTM station the day he got lost, alighting at Panvel - hungry, crying.
#IKidYouNot
indianexpress.com/article/cities…
![CCTV grab from Santanwadi railway station showing Tarun walking past a shop wearing the same clothes he got lost in - black t-shirt and blue 3/4 pants.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJXk5d0VAAATVSV.jpg)
By now he could be anywhere. #BringHimHome
![Screengrab of missing disabled youth Tarun on Railway CCTV wearing black tshirt and blue 3/4 pants. Contact 7977246793 Updates @ http://bit.ly/find-tarun](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJXtf9ZUwAAXvAq.jpg)