As a boy, Saroo lived in Khandwa, India where he was a train sweeper with his brother. One day he fell asleep next to the trains, and when he awoke his brother was nowhere to be found. Hoping to find his brother, he hopped on a train. This train took him all the way to the busy city of Calcutta, a distance of approximately 925 miles. He searched for help for weeks in this big dangerous city. He came across many scary situations, but finally ended up in an orphanage. He was discovered in this orphanage by an Australian couple that adopted him and took him to go live with them in Tasmania.
After 25 years apart, Saroo used the website Google Maps to retrace his long lost journey back to his mother. Knowing he took the train line to the city of Calcutta, he traced the train lines from Calcutta using Google earth in search for a station that matched the time and distance that he remembered traveling. He looked at the satellite image of the Khandwa train station and knew from memory that this must be the place where it all began. Upon his return to the village he was reunited with his mother, who had prayed every day for his safe return.
Finding a long lost loved one online may seem like a rare occurrence, but I too can relate. Four years ago my older sisters calls, telling me she got a message from a girl on Facebook claiming to be our long lost half sister. Turns out, she was who she clamed to be. We ended up connecting and I was able to add an amazing big sister to my family. Stories like Saroo’s and mine are perhaps one of the most benevolent side effects of our shrinking world, where technology binds us into a web of interconnectivity.
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