a long way home by saroo brierley barampur

#A long way home by saroo brierley barampur how to#

In case he ever wanted to find these answers. Photographs, maps were drawn of his vague memories as a five year-old, which she kept. All this benefits Saroo in his search.įrom the first days after he came to live with his Mom and Dad, his new parents were extremely supportive and helpful. More time passes and the demand for instant everything brings faster speeds. Consistent persistency with no results is emotionally draining. By this time, Saroo Brierley is a young man, and the internet as we know it is even younger, but there is a promise of something, just knowing it is out there and can be found. Years go by, time passes and one day in 2004, Google purchases Brian McClendon’s company “Keyhole, Inc.”, and suddenly the world is at your fingertips. They opened their hearts a second time, a few years later, to adopt a brother for Saroo, a second son for them, named Mantash.

Saroo owes much of his open heart to Sue and John Brierley, a couple who were heaven sent. This couple has lovingly put together a scrap book, photos of the plane to transport him to Australia, their home. Sood asks Saroo if he thinks he would like to live with this family. A wonderful Australian couple are hoping he would like to come live with them, let them be his new family and live in Tasmania. Neither name is recognized by anyone, and after months pass, he is declared “lost,” so that he is now available for adoption. She seeks to find his home going on the only words he associates with his home.

#A long way home by saroo brierley barampur how to#

I was more concerned that my father didn’t know how to do pigtails.Īll a far cry from a five year-old boy, in Calcutta, with no money, no family and no idea of where he is or how to find his way home.Īnd then, after a series of unfortunate circumstances followed by one fortunate one, Saroo ends up in an orphanage, and is “found” by one woman working there - Saroj Sood. I did have a long distance trip that year – to Disneyland, my father, my older brother and me, but Calcutta is nothing like Disneyland, everyone spoke my language and money was not something I was concerned with. With only a vague idea of the name of the village he is from, and many miles in between, it’s amazing he ever found his way back.įive years old, I remember naps in school, a playground, an older brother and a brand new baby brother. It would be years before Saroo would return. Looking up to his older brother, five year-old Saroo decides to go with Guddu one night. There was no choice to the matter, hunger was simply a fact of life, like the searing heat and the constantly buzzing flies.”

”I remember feeling hungry most of the time. Guddu also tried extra jobs, selling items at the train station platform, but that created new problems with the law. Playing with his brothers, Guddu and Kallu. Still, there were moments that Saroo would look back on later with fondness: playing peek-a-boo with Shekila, his baby sister. Still, they ended up begging for scraps from neighbors, anyone. I don’t know what that was worth then, but now one rupee is equivalent to 1.6 cents, so less than a penny for 6 hours of washing dishes. Still, it wasn’t enough, so Guddu, the oldest at ten, went to work, washing dishes for 6 hours for half a rupee. Kamla, Saroo’s mother, worked 6 days a week, morning until nightfall, hard physically grueling work, sometimes gone for days at a time. Broken, unpaved streets outside throughout the poverty-stricken neighborhood. When Saroo’s father left his mother and their family for another woman, another family, they moved from the Hindu community / side of town to the Muslim side moving into a single room falling apart with a cowpat and mud floor and a small corner fireplace. Sad, horrifying, wondrous, life affirming, heartbreaking and heartwarming.