KANNUR: The story of this crore-pathi is stranger than folklore! The sight of Priyadarshini teacher, who wears red lip colour, tints her eyebrows, wears ragged clothes and walks through the streets of Thalassery, carrying a plastic can in her hand and a cloth bundle on her back, has always generated the curiosity of onlookers.

Though some called her insane, some social media gossipers came up with a spoof about her. They depicted her as the heroine of an old tragic love story. They described her as, “still a true lover who wanders around the railway station in search of her lover, a loco-pilot who had died in an accident".

But in real life, this 85-year old is not at all that fictitious character.

She stayed in the heart of Thalassery town, in a dilapidated house, near DySP office. She was living alone and her plot is worth crores of rupees

It was social worker Shamreez Backer who dug into her past and found that her birth was in a well-to-do family in Thalassery. She was the first English teacher in a Mahe school. Though she had married Kannur Alavil native Radhakrishnan, the marriage ended in three years. After that, she has remained single.

Priyadarshini’s relatives and siblings are well off and stay in Delhi and Kolkata. None of them has time even to enquire about her. The only contact she has is with her sister in Mahe. She made calls to her from some coin telephone booths at the railway station. She met her day to day expense with the money this sister sent her.

However, a few social workers led by Shamreez came to her with solace and help. They took her to Thanal, an old-age home at Vadakara Edacherry. She is happy and the dearest to other inmates there.

Recently, a filmmaker wanted to make her life a story but he dropped the plan after coming to know that there was no Kanchanamala or Moideen in her real-life story.