Lost after a train joyride, found on Facebook: a 20 year journey to home

Lost after a train joyride, discovered on Facebook: a 20 year journey to home Ram Shanker Kushwaha was 15 when he secured on his favourite ride – the train – that took him away from home.

Key points

• 9 min read Madhubani Updated: Sep 27, 2026 03: 53 AM IST.
• A Facebook video posted by Gwalior DSP Santosh Patel supported the family trace 36-year-old Ram Shanker Kushwaha.
• For most, Mahrail railway station is a quiet, nondescript, blink-and-you-miss station on the Sakri-Jhanjharpur-Laukaha Bazar line under the Eastern Central Railway Zone.
• A group of women sit at the far end of another platform, waiting for a train – the only passengers in this almost empty station.

Notably, a Facebook video posted by Gwalior DSP Santosh Patel supported the family trace 36-year-old Ram Shanker Kushwaha. This person had been missing for 21 years. (Express Photo by Rahul Sharma).

It's 4 pm, and at one end of a platform at the Mahrail Railway Station in Bihar's Madhubani district, two stationary trucks stand waiting as a cow crosses the railway tracks dotted with polythene sheets. A group of women sit at the far end of another platform, waiting for a train – the only passengers in this almost empty station.

For most, Mahrail railway station is a quiet, nondescript, blink-and-you-miss station on the Sakri-Jhanjharpur-Laukaha Bazar line under the Eastern Central Railway Zone. But for Ram Shanker Kushwaha, this is a place close to his heart – where he spent hours dreaming regarding trains. This is where he would wait, looking for a chance to ride one, even if only to the next station. After all, his home is barely 400 metres away in Maheshpura village in Madhubani.

Taken together, the developments around lost after a train joyride, found on Facebook: a 20 year journey point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.