Bengaluru girl, influenced by shamanism, missing for two months

A Bengaluru-based teenage girl, suspectedly influenced by shamanism, a religious practice, has gone missing since October 31.

The helpless parents of Anushka used Twitter to seek people’s help in finding their 17-year-old daughter, who left the house with some clothes and ₹2,500 in cash. The police too have failed to get any details on the girl so far.

Anushka’s parents said she had been talking about shamanism for some time and had expressed her desire to follow the traditional method of healing. Shamanism is a religious practice based on the belief that its practitioner interacts with spirits in an altered state of consciousness.

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Her mother said Anushka is just like any other teenager, but they noticed a marked difference in her behaviour when she started avoiding them. Her parents first noticed a change in her behaviour in September and had taken her to a counsellor then. “Anushka became a recluse. She stopped talking to us. She was keeping to herself and restricted herself from daily activities. She told me that she wanted to follow shamanism,” Abhishek, her father said.

The parents said Anushka was deeply influenced by shamanism, about which she came to know through some online platforms. “It seems she got influenced by someone online. She’s just a kid and not able to take decisions on her own,” he said.

The Bengaluru police said they did not find any CCTV footage that would help them know where she must have gone. For now, they are investigating her online activities, but Anushka hasn’t contacted anyone on social media from the time she went missing, the police said.

Anushka’s parents have asked people to help find their daughter. “We know she loves us. She will surely return to us,” said her mother.