It was in a few months that he won his employer's trust and rose through the ranks to take control of the arrangements on the Tunda's four houseboats. He also doubled as a guide to the tourists, learning in the process a good smattering of English as well. "I worked day and night on my job and looked forward to strike it big," Jafar says.

Only thing he didn't remember, however, was his home. The memory of his parents and siblings, he says, hardly crossed his mind. Despite having a phone at his home, Jafar never called. This led to his distraught parents, who were desperately searching for him, give him up for dead. They had filed an FIR in the police station, Poonch but failed to trace him.

The family also went through tragedies. His grandfather passed away as a result of the shock. But Jafar does not know this. "I am not aware that my grandfather has passed away. I learnt it only today," he said. However, with police set to send him back to his home and even getting his relatives over to Srinagar to take him back, Jafar is not happy. "I have yet to fulfil my dream. And now police is sending me back," he says. Even talking to his mother on home doesn't seem to have melted him. "I talked to my mother today. She cried inconsolably. I felt it too".