Posted on 04/21/2012 2:04:36 PM PDT by billorites
An Indian boy who lost his mother in 1986 has found her 25 years later from his new home in Tasmania - using satellite images.
Saroo was only five years old when he got lost. He was travelling with his older brother, working as a sweeper on India's trains. "It was late at night. We got off the train, and I was so tired that I just took a seat at a train station, and I ended up falling asleep."
That fateful nap would determine the rest of his life. "I thought my brother would come back and wake me up but when I awoke he was nowhere to be seen. I saw a train in front of me and thought he must be on that train. So I decided to get on it and hoped that I would meet my brother."
Saroo did not meet his brother on the train. Instead, he fell asleep and had a shock when he woke up 14 hours later. Though he did not realise it at first, he had arrived in Calcutta, India's third biggest city and notorious for its slums. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Saroo Brierley as an adult
I do not think any mother or father would like to have their five year old wandering alone in the slums and train stations of Calcutta”
"I was absolutely scared. I didn't know where I was. I just started to look for people and ask them questions."
Soon he was sleeping rough. "It was a very scary place to be. I don't think any mother or father would like to have their five year old wandering alone in the slums and trains stations of Calcutta."
The little boy learned to fend for himself. < SNIP >
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I would have liked to read that he was helping take care of his mother. Sounds like she wasn’t well off.
I think she’s in the lowest caste in India, the “Untouchables”. If so, she probably isn’t well off at all.
Wow what a story!
This is some story.
We really don’t appreciate how lucky we are, to be here in the good old US of A.
Watch that movie slumdog millionaire to see how frightful things are in the rest of the world.
My mother always said it was government corruption, that things could be just as good everywhere as they are here. Maybe that is true, I don’t know.
But there are a lot of children who are on their own, something I find almost impossible to imagine.
So I sound like some bleeding heart lib now? Gosh I hope not!
save for later
The article says he and his brother were "sweepers" on the train. That's a euphemism - it doesn't mean pushing a broom, but that they cleared away human waste. That means they are Dalit or Untouchables.
I believe your mother is right but only in countries where population numbers aren't a problem. India, especially Calcutta, are grotesquely overpopulated and they continue to grow without adequate resources to provide jobs or food for them all.
I don't know what the answer is but I certainly don't get upset having to call an internet tech support person and talk to someone in India........
Such a sad story but in a way, getting lost and being adopted by a family in Tasmania was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to him. I saw this story on Fox the other day. He seems like a very bright and articulate young man and very grateful for the orphanage that took him off the streets and to his adoptive parents who gave him a much better life. I can however understand why he wanted to go back to India to find his mother and his family. It’s not as if he was abandoned and his mother was so grateful and relieved to know he was still alive and doing well; she’d never forgotten him or gave up hope that she’d see him again one day.
I wonder however why he doesn’t take his mother back to Tasmania with him given that she is in a low caste and very poor. Perhaps he will now that he found her.
I think his life has turned out much better than his beginnings would have predicted (as indicated by his brother’s end). I expect he’ll do whatever he can for his mother, now, even if it’s not possible to take her to Australia, or if she doesn’t want to go there.
There’s a haunting movie with a very similar plot...Salaam Bombay”.
I recall from the story I saw that he said he would go back to visit her as often as he could. I suspect he will also support her financially. Given her circumstances, even a little bit would probably go a long way.
Imagine how we take for granted, in the U.S. or Australia, that people naturally have the freedom, given the opportunity, to "marry up."
That hasn't been the norm historically and still is an anomaly in most societies.
As a rock band or cultural phenomena the Grateful Dead probably will be remembered for a mixed record.
I, however, will always appreciate them for the degree that they facilitated me marrying well above my station.
My husband married up, too -;).
A few US or AU dollars would make a big difference, I’m sure.
A great story. Thank God for America and for its great American companies such as Google, that made this possible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.