Ahmedabad: A WhatsApp status posted in despair brought a 45-year-old woman back from the edge. The resident of Naroda’s Hanspura area, who runs a small business, left home after an argument with her husband over preparing food. Though the dispute was small, the weight of it became too much to carry. And she decided she had had enough.Before she walked out of her house, the distressed woman posted what she believed were her final words as her WhatsApp status. It was the kind of message that stops you cold: “Sorry everyone ND goodbye”. For her son, she had written something more personal: “Bye beta miss u, khush rehje, mane maaf karje. (Goodbye, son. I’ll miss you. Stay happy. Forgive me.)” But she did not know that her son was reading it. He felt the weight of her words and did not pause to second-guess himself. He immediately called his father and then the police control room. Naroda police swung into action, tracing her mobile signal, which was still active. Technical surveillance tracked her first to the Khodiyar temple, then to another temple in the area. Officers and family rushed to the location. They found her there, alone, but alive. On seeing her son walk towards her, the woman fainted. She was taken to the hospital, where she regained consciousness and found her family beside her. Police counselled her before she returned home. Cops said the son’s alertness made all the difference. “The boy saw his mother’s status message, understood the gravity of it, and called police without delay,” a cop said.Police Inspect C V Nayak said, “It was the woman’s son who informed the control room that she had left home after posting a Whatsapp status that made him worry. The cops found that her mobile was active. Through technical surveillance, they traced the woman’s location,” he said.
