![]() ![]() ![]() That he made it TO Australia relatively unscathed was a minor miracle: children are often taken for trafficking purposes, slave labor, even their organs. If he had not gone on the trip, he might not have ever gone to school in Australia or been able to have access to the opportunities he and his adoptive brother had. There is no way to know. And in retrospect, Saroo acknowledges he was quite lucky. The author says he has no idea if it had been an accidental, if he had been pushed, if his brother realized Saroo was missing and had been trying to find him. He finds out the older brother he journeyed with was killed, run over by a train. He retraces his steps, including the train journey, the orphanage he was brought to and visits the woman who helped facilitate his adoption to his Australian family. But unfortunately not all of this story is happy. Amusingly, he finds his formal name is "Sheru" (or "lion" in Hindi) but says he will be forever Saroo. Eventually when in college he has access to tools like high speed internet 24 hours a day and has access to social media like Facebook (which seems to have been in its infant stages when he started school, but he begins posting as he becomes truly serious about finding answers). It takes time, (unfortunately Saroo's memories as a child are subjective, and so he acknowledges misremembering the original journey), but Saroo does find his biological mother and siblings. He grows up there, learns English and seems fairly well-adjusted, although of course he still has questions (which ebb and flow over time). Saroo eventually makes his way to an orphanage (after the authorities cannot determine where he is from or if his parents are even alive), which was better than his previous situation, but with uncaring/overwhelmed staff, bullying and sexual/physical abuse is not uncommon. Yet, for the most part the author manages to escape the worst (he does get bullied and sometimes is at the end of some violence from bigger kids) and is eventually adopted by a family in Australia. He sees a group of children awoken and possibly abducted-he then flees and has no idea what happened to them. Saroo strongly suspects a railway worker introduced him to a friend who had other intentions in mind. Eventually he begins surviving on the streets, digging for scraps, hanging out with other groups of children, occasionally begging and finding the occasional kindness of strangers. However, not all people are nice. ![]() He tries to find his way back via taking various trains, but he has no idea where he's from or how to get home. The video understandably makes it a big deal that he used Google to find it, but this book is more about his journey from his hometown and back again. Saroo survives on the streets for a time (few weeks or months), which I found incredible considering he was only 5-6 years old. It turns out that Saroo would use the technology of Google Maps and Earth (as well as Facebook and the internet in general) to locate his hometown and eventually his family. However, this journey with his brother will forever change his life. I had first heard of his story via a Google Earth/Maps video. He is from a poor family in India, has had no formal schooling and is basically learning how to survive like many of his neighbors and fellow Indians. At the age of about 5, Saroo Brierley goes off with his older brother on an adventure. Review 2: One man's journey to finding his biological family. I found out at the very end of the book on one of the last pages after the epilogue there is indeed a map of India-be adv. The entire time I read this book I was wishing there was a map of India included to show me where in India Brierly was focusing on. There are moments when Brierly bogs us down a bit with the tedious details of his searching for his home town and again for the train line that took him away, but overall the book is very interesting. In this memoir, Brierly takes us through his impoverished childhood, the fateful train ride, his subsequent adoption by an Australian couple and then his return to India at age 30. Review 1: Saroo Brierly gets lost on a train in his native India and his entire world is changed. ![]()
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