Press conference in February

Fifty-five-year old Marie Claire can barely hide her tears, while daughter Catherine cannot control them. Marie's son and Catherine's twin brother Jean-Baptiste Talleu has been missing for over a year now. The family had registered a complaint in December 2007.

"We often hope, but there has been no concrete news tracing him, the police told us," says Catherine.

Talleu, who would turn 27 this year, had set out on a world wide tour on his cycle in July 2007. He travelled through Europe, Iran, Dubai and was headed for Pondicherry via Mumbai before he disappeared.

Talleu had last called his mother from Dubai on December 2.

Marie and her husband Pierre have been putting up posters announcing a reward of Rs 2 lakh at various places for the past three months now. They have also travelled from Varkala in Kerala to New Delhi where Talleu was reportedly seen, but to no avail.

"We were disappointed, we believed the story of the man who called with information to be true," says Catherine.

The Claire family has even searched near Mumbai's Goregaon East area where he had last withdrawn money from an ATM. Though the French police hasn't been given permission to investigate Jean's disappearance in India, his parents are not giving up.

Catherine says, "We will stay back here and pursue the matter with the police."

Marie and Pierre hope to find their son alive some day, even if it means managing with whatever little English they know.