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• 1.Recalling

  • At the age of six, Saroo Brierley got lost while traveling on a train in India. Too young and unable to identify his hometown or family, he ended up in an orphanage. He was then adopted by an Australian couple, the Brierleys, from Tasmania.
    
    After the Brierleys adopted Saroo in 1987 and brought him to live with them in Hobart, Tasmania, they tried to make Saroo feel as comfortable as possible in a strange new land. Mom decorated his room with Indian objects to remind him where he had come from. A map of India was placed on his bedroom wall. Saroo would frequently stare at the map, wondering exactly where on that map he had lived before. His year of birth had been estimated by Indian authorities, and his day of birth was simply the day he had arrived at the orphanage. He was too young to explain where he was from or even say his full name. He knew he had lived at a place called “Ginestlay” but didn’t know whether it was the name of a town or street.
    
    With the love and care Mum and Dad gave him, Saroo had a relatively smooth transition living in another country. To treasure the new life he had with them, Saroo would keep the memories of India to himself. He could not explain much anyway. However, he did not want to forget and so, he would recall every detail at night, good and bad.

• 2.Life in India

  • Saroo’s mother, Kamla, raised her four children alone. Kamla was a Hindu, while Saroo’s father was a Muslim, which led to a broken marriage. They were raised as Hindus, but they moved to the Muslim side of town after their father left. Perhaps, Kamla felt this side was a little less impoverished and a better environment for the children. Their new home was just a single room on the ground level of a red brick building, and the floor was just made with cowpat and mud. They used candles for light.
    
    Kamla would work six days a week to earn a handful of rupees. It was never enough to feed four children. Saroo always went to the neighbors or the marketplace to beg for food or money. They were not picky at all about what they ate. Whether it was food stuck in an uncleaned pot left outside, leftover food covered with flies, or food in a broken glass jar, Saroo would put it in his mouth.
    
    As they grew older, Saroo’s brothers, Guddu and Kallu, spent more time outside looking for food and money to support the family. Saroo would look after his baby sister, Shekila. One of the good memories Saroo held was playing peekaboo with Shekila. She would look at him as her protector and hero. When Saroo was about four or five, his brothers occasionally brought him with them to a place called “Berampur” station but returned home with him at night.

• 3.Getting Lost

  • One night after dinner, Guddu, the oldest brother, said he was going back to “Berampur.” Saroo did not want to be left behind again and asked if he could go with him. This was the first time Saroo would spend the whole night with his brother outside his hometown. By the time they got off the train at “Berampur,” Saroo was tired. Thus, Guddu asked him to sleep at the station and wait for him. When Saroo woke up, there was no one but a train at the platform. He got on the train without knowing if Guddu was on the train and where the train would be going. Somehow, he just fell asleep on the bench in the empty carriage, thinking Guddu would be on the train and come get him soon.
    
    When Saroo woke up again, it was daytime. There was still no one in the carriage. The doors could not be opened either. He looked out through the windows, screaming and crying. The train stopped at different stations but the doors would not open. After hours and hours, the train stopped and the door was finally opened. Saroo rushed out from the carriage, not knowing where he was. He found out later, in his bedroom in Hobart, that he had arrived at Calcutta, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. No one at the station stopped and listened to him. He was frightened but he had to survive. During those days, he would get on the trains, hoping one of them would lead him back home. Yet he always ended up at Calcutta again and again. He was so hungry that he ate anything he found on the ground. He cried to himself, wanting Guddu to come and save him. One night at the station, the sound of screaming voices woke him up. There were kids being grabbed by the adults. Saroo did not know what was going on, and he just ran for his life. He was then afraid to go back to the station. Wandering on the dangerous streets of Calcutta, he tried his best to survive.

• 4.Survival and Salvation

  • Saroo went to the river and saw people doing laundry and bathing. Although the river also had dead corpses floating and people excreting, he joined with the kids to play in the river.  One day, he almost drowned but was saved by an old man who lived on the riverbank. The next day, he went to the river again, almost drowned again, and was saved by the same man again. Without thanking the man who saved his life, Saroo, feeling humiliated, ran off from the crowd.
    
    Saroo slept near the river at night and scavenged for food during daylight. Even when Saroo saw food on the ground, he had to fend off others to eat it. He had already once been ganged up upon and bullied by a group of older boys. One time when he was walking along the train tracks, a railway worker approached him and asked what he was doing in such a dangerous place. The railway worker offered him a dinner and a place to sleep. The next day, the railway worker brought a man with him who claimed he could help Saroo. They sat down on the bed, and Saroo told him what had happened. Although everything seemed normal, an uneasy feeling was running throughout Saroo’s body. His intuition told him he must flee. He remained calm and found a chance to escape at night. The two men discovered Saroo had left and went after him. Saroo managed to avoid detection by hiding inside a leaking pipe until they were gone.
    
    Saroo did not want to be near the railway station again. He crossed the river and roamed around on the streets. One day, a boy about the age of Guddu came along and invited Saroo to stay with his family after realizing he was lost. Saroo’s instinct told him that this boy could be trusted. Later, the boy took him to the police station. Saroo did not like police but he trusted the boy. Saroo stayed in the holding cell at the police station that night. The next day, he tried to tell the Indian police what had happened to him. Unfortunately, they did not know where “Ginestlay” was. He could not correctly pronounce the “Burampur” station where he had boarded the train either. After questioning, they bought him to a juvenile detention center called Liluah. About a month later, they could not find Saroo’s family and so, they sent him to an orphanage called Nava Jeevan.
    
    Mrs. Saroj Sood, of the Indian Society for Sponsorship and Adoption, or ISSA, held Saroo’s hands as a concerned mother would after the court released him into her custody. ISSA tried to help him find his family too but failed with so little information. After Saroo spent four weeks in Nava Jeevan, Mrs. Sood told him that there was a couple in Australia, the Brierleys, who would like to adopt him as their child. They showed him a photograph album made by the couple. It included the pictures of the house, the car, the jet plane, and the couple themselves. Thus, Saroo left India with other kids within a few days after he accepted the adoption.

• 5.Living and Growing Up

  • Saroo’s bedroom floor was full of picture books and toys. It took a while for him to realize these were all his. Everything seemed like a luxury. Mom and Dad also brought him to play golf, camp, hike, and sail. Dad taught him how to swim. He finally could go to school, and he loved learning. When Saroo was ten, Mom and Dad adopted a second child from India, a younger boy named Mantosh. Saroo was thrilled about the idea of having a younger brother since he missed his baby sister Shekila so much. The family had planned to visit India together, but due to concern that India would evoke bad memories for Saroo and Mantosh, the trip was canceled.
    
    As Saroo grew older, he focused more and more on the present and future. But sometimes, he would imagine himself back in India,  walking home and seeing the faces of his mother and younger sister Shekila as they slept soundly, and communicating telepathically to them that he was doing well.
    
    Like so many rambunctious kids, Saroo’s grades were suffering from too many extracurricular activities, including socializing. Thus, Mom and Dad gave him three choices: leave school when he turned twelve and find a job, get into university, or join the army. He ended up pursuing a degree in hospitality in Canberra.. At the college in Canberra, Saroo met some international students from India. They were interested in his story and were eager to help him solve his mystery. One of them was named Amreen, whose father had worked for the Indian Railway in New Delhi for a long time. Saroo asked him if he knew any station near “Ginestlay,” and the answer was disheartening. But Amreen’s father did provide some information about possible locations of “Berampur” station. None of them seemed to fit with the story he remembered though. He then discovered the tool Google Earth which could actually help him pinpoint possible locations on a virtual map using satellite images. After searching for a period of time, he gave up because India was simply too big and he had too little information to work with. After obtaining his degree, Saroo joined his dad’s company, which sold industrial hoses and fittings, valves, and pumps, instead of working in hospitality.

• 6.Resuming the Search and Finding Home

  • Saroo broke up with his girlfriend and was depressed. Luckily, one of his friends, Byron, suggested that he move into a spare room at his place and this cheered Saroo up. When he was alone, he started to think about his life in India again. He decided he could not lose the chance of finding his hometown and his family. Initially, he would just search around every “B” town he encountered. However, this type of aimless searching had not led him to any meaningful results. He then changed his approach. He knew he was at Howrah Station when he arrived in Calcutta, which is now named Kolkata. Based on how long he estimated he was on the train, he drew a circular boundary line around Kolkata. With the help of Google Earth, he then began to zoom in and out along the tracks starting from Kolkata.
    
    Months passed by. In 2010, Saroo met Lisa through a friend of Byron. Lisa was very understanding and supportive of Saroo’s search. On March 31, 2011, he came home from work and opened Google Earth as usual. He got tired and went on Facebook. Then he went back on Google Earth, just randomly exploring outside the boundary line he had made and noticed a blue lake called Nal Damyanti Sagar. It was relaxing to look at the landscape. He didn’t see any railroad tracks in this huge area, and so he was curious: how did these people living here travel around? Then, a blue symbol appeared. It was a train station. Out of habit, he traced the tracks. He then saw some familiar looking landmarks, and discovered the station was named “Burhanpur.” Could “Ginestlay” be somewhere close by? He followed the tracks using his memory to guide him and found the Khandwa railway station, which did not ring a bell. Then from that station, he followed the road and ended up in his hometown neighborhood. Although the name “Ginestlay” did not show up, everything else matched. By then, it had been five years since he downloaded Google Earth and eight months since he began systematically searching.
    
    Everyone around Saroo still could not believe it. To verify that “Ginestlay” was part of Khandwa, he found a Facebook page and asked if there was any town or suburb in Khandwa beginning with the letter “G.” The answer was “Ganesh Talai.” He decided to go to India and confirm it in person. Although Lisa and Saroo’s parents wanted to go with him, he insisted he should do this alone. Before Saroo left for India, Mom gave him photos of himself showing what he looked like as a little boy.

• 7.Hope and the Power of Love

  • On February 11, 2012, he finally stepped foot in India. He stayed in the city of Indore, Madhya Pradesh for the night. The next day, he rode in a cab headed to the Khandwa railway station. As he looked out at the surrounding scenery, he realized he knew the place. He returned to the hotel to rest, but then he changed his mind. He wanted to find his home. He was not sure which way to go after leaving the hotel. But he slowly found his way and eventually arrived at a small red brick building. It was so tiny compared to what he had remembered as a child. He looked inside; it was empty. That was the end, he thought.
    
    Then, someone came by and asked what he needed. Saroo recited the names: “Kamla, Guddu, Kallu, Shekila, Saroo.” A guy brought him to his mother. Saroo and his biological mother Kamla looked at each other for just a few seconds before recognizing each other, with tears of indescribable joy in their eyes. Kamla brought Saroo to her home. She spoke on the phone in Hindu, calling out “Sheru! Sheru!” Saroo then realized his own name wasn’t even Saroo, and he had been pronouncing his own name wrongly the whole time. The house outside was full of people, curious about what was happening. One of the neighbors, Cheryl, was interpreting for them between Hindi and English. Kallu and Shekila later arrived. They did not speak English either. It was just moments full of the type of joyfulness and tears which no words could convey. Saroo later learned that his older brother Guddu had also disappeared that same night  and was tragically found dead later. Kamla was extremely thankful to Saroo’s adoptive parents for raising him up as their own child.
    
    The next day, the local news media found out about the story – the long lost boy who suddenly reappeared in Ganesh Talai. So did the national media. Saroo told his incredible story again and again.
    
    Saroo’s Indian siblings had also grown up into responsible adults. Kallu had become a factory manager, and Shekila was a schoolteacher. There were both married and had children. Saroo had two homes now, one in Tasmania and the other in India. When he returned to Hobart, the local media found him and so did the international media. Although it was tiring to recount the story over and over again, he wanted to do it. He thought it might provide hope to others who had experienced similar circumstances.
    
    During Saroo’sthe second visit to India, he learned that his biological family had always held the belief he would come back. That was why his mother had always stayed near their old house and refused to move away with Kallu or Shekila. Saroo also went back to Kolkata to visit the detention place and orphanage to make his journey complete. If he had never randomly explored outside the boundary line he had made on Google Earth and seen the blue lake which captured his curiosity, would he have ever found his hometown?

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