Saroo Brierley – 25 Years Away From Home
The story of Saroo Brierley sounds like it’s something from a novel. In fact, it became the favorite movie Lion. The most beautiful thing about this story and the movie, though, is that after all that this young man had to go through, he got his happy ending.
Saroo’s incredible adventure began in a small town in India called Khandwa. At the time, Saroo was only five years old and he was from a very humble family. His father left them to be with another woman.
Saroo’s mother, Fatima, had to earn a living by working as a construction worker. However, she did not earn enough money to support her family.
They were three children in the family including Saroo. The eldest son was ten years old at the time, and he took small jobs to help his mother. He often cleaned train cars. Next, there was Saroo, who sometimes accompanied his older brother while he worked. Finally, there was the youngest sister who had only just learned to walk.
Saroo Brierley and his life-changing moment
On any given day, the two brothers went to work cleaning clean trains at the Burhanpur train station. After a long day, little Saroo was so tired that he sat down on one of the benches at the station and fell asleep. This nap changed his life forever.
When he woke up, he could not see his older brother anywhere. Therefore, he began to call on him, but he could not find him. Saroo saw a train at the beginning of the station and he thought Guddu was probably cleaning the carriages. Therefore, he boarded the train to look for him.
Guddu, however, was nowhere to be found, and he did not answer the calls. Next, the train set off for Calcutta, and Saroo’s life, as he knew it, was over.
Meanwhile , Saroo’s mother was waiting for her two children to return home, but they never returned home. On her own, she tried to figure out what had happened. After two months, she found out that Guddu had been found dead. Someone had found him dead on the train tracks. A train had hit him.
A nightmare in Calcutta
Saroo Brierley arrived in Calcutta after 14 hours on the train. However, he was not very good at speaking, and he did not know the name of the town he lived in. When he arrived at the train station, he wanted to take the train back, but it was impossible. He stayed at the station, where he slept among cardboard boxes and ate from the garbage.
There was a gang of young kidnappers on the street and they tried to kidnap him. Saroo ran as fast as he could and he managed to escape. However, he was afraid to return to the station.
His memories of those days are filled with hunger and torment. It is not entirely clear how it happened, but a teenager took him to the police station. From here he ended up in an orphanage with very strict rules.
At the orphanage, they tried to find his family, but it was impossible. After some time, the orphanage placed him in an adoption program.
Next, Saroo was lucky enough to be adopted by an Australian family who wanted to take care of him, along with another boy from India. Saroo’s life changed completely when he traveled to Tasmania with his new parents.
Saroo Brierley and his return to his home
Saroo Brierley, however, could not forget the past he had left. He still remembered his older brother, his mother, and his younger sister.
When he was in high school, a group of friends and his girlfriend decided to help him find crucial information: The city he came from. They did some calculations for all the cities that were 14 hours away from Calcutta and they started searching on Google Earth.
It took another five years before Saroo one day saw a water tower on display that seemed familiar. He studied nearby towns, and they triggered something in his memory. Later, he recognized a road and a bridge. He says he jumped for happiness at that moment because he found out where he was from.
Next, he traveled to his hometown and began to lead. By pure intuition he came to his mother’s house, but no one lived there anymore. Although he had forgotten his local language, he managed to get some information. Finally, one day he arrived at the door of his mother’s house.
She looked at him for a few minutes before recognizing him. Saroo says that this reunion after 25 years was the happiest moment of his life.
Shortly after, he found out that his name was not “Saroo” but “Sheru”. He did not know how to pronounce it when he was little, and that was how he ended up with a new name. “Sheru” means “lion”. A year later, he returned to his hometown with his adoptive mother, and he completed the cycle of loose ends with long-awaited hugs.
