A heart-wrenching photograph that has recently gone viral shows a young girl in a school uniform sobbing in the arms of an elderly woman. This poignant image, widely shared on social media over the weekend, has deeply moved many.

Accompanying the picture is a story that, while true, reveals a deeper narrative. The young girl in the photo, who was on a school field trip to an old age home, unexpectedly discovered that the elderly woman in the image was her grandmother. She had been led to believe that her grandmother was living with relatives, only to find her at the old age home.

However, the story behind the image is more than a decade old. The photo was actually taken on September 12, 2007, by photojournalist Kalpesh S Bharech.


Bharech had received a call from the principal of GNC School in Maninagar, Gujarat, asking him to cover a school trip to the Manilal Gandhi old age home in Ghodasar. Unaware of the emotional impact this assignment would have, Bharech agreed and arrived at the old age home.

During the visit, Bharech asked the students to sit with the elderly residents so he could capture some photographs. As the children were getting up, one girl suddenly screamed and ran across the room to embrace an elderly woman. The two broke down in tears as they hugged.

"We all became speechless," Bharech recalled in an article for BBC Gujarati. He later learned that the elderly woman, known as Baa, was the girl’s grandmother. The girl explained that her father had told her that her grandmother had gone away, not revealing that she had been sent to an old age home.

"The scene was so emotional that everyone was moved to tears, just like me," Bharech wrote. In an attempt to lift the spirits of those present, the students began singing songs to the elderly residents.

Source / Image Credit : Mohammed Zubair, KalpitBharech, Indiatoday