For 18-year-old Ishika Kumari, it was a dream-come-true situation.

She played a crucial role in reuniting her parents who had separated a little over 14 years ago for her father being a habitual alcoholic.

The innovative idea to reunite her parents struck the mind of Ishika, a Class X student of a government school in Rohtas district, following a complete prohibition across the state, which came into effect from April 5.

She convinced her mother Vijayanti Devi to remarry Jai Govind Singh, Ishika's father.

Jai Govind (58) and Vijayanti (52) had divorced in 2001. Vijayanti had left her husband's house at Mohaddiganj near Sasaram and settled in Dehri-on-Sone's Mohan Bigha locality with her only daughter, who was hardly four years old then. The two never met with each other after separation.

On the day chief minister Nitish Kumar announced total prohibition (April 5), Ishika met her father and persuaded him to remarry his wife, who had left him for being a habitual drunkard.

"Since he (father) is a changed soul and has not touched liquor after the complete prohibition, I arranged remarriage of the old couple in a grand way," Ishika, also called Guddi, said on Friday.

To the utter dismay of the local people, Ishika herself took the responsibility of her parents' remarriage. She distributed invitation cards and personally spoke to relatives on phone, inviting them to the function.

"We organised a gala party at Mohaddiganj village and my father and mother accepted each other in the presence a number of relatives and family friends. It was altogether a different scene seeing the separated couple being reunited," said Ishika.

The wedding was solemnised on the auspicious Monday. A day after their wedding, the couple visited famous Mundeshwari temple in neighbouring Kaimur to seek blessings of the Almighty to lead a happy conjugal life. "I have no qualm in admitting that I had lost everything because of excess consumption of liquor," Jai Govind added.

He added: "Once life without alcohol was meaningless. The situation had deteriorated to such an extent that even my wife deserted me. In fact, it was like a vanvaas (banishment) for both of us. But now we are living together. People lauded our daughter's sole initiative."

Jai Govind is all praise for Nitish for being the saviour of hundreds of poor families by imposing ban on sale and manufacture of all kinds of liquor in Bihar.

The 1966-born Jai Govind, an intermediate in commerce from an Ara college, was married to Vijayanti in 1984. The couple's first sibling had died soon after her birth.

Vijayanti is equally happy after being reunited with her husband. "I wish all parents have child like Ishika."

The girl had earlier submitted her written pledge to her school that she would not only convince her drunkard father but also other people in her neighbourhood to stay away from alcohol. And she translated her pledge into reality on Monday.