Saroo Brierley, 25 Years Away From Home

The story of Saroo Brierley seems to be from a novel. In fact, it became the hit movie Lion . The most beautiful thing about this story and the movie, however, is that after everything 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 came from a very poor family. His father left them to be with another woman. Saroo’s mother, Fatima, had to earn a living as a construction worker. However, she did not earn enough money to support her family.

There were three children in the family, including Saroo. The eldest son, Kallu, was then 10 years old and did small jobs to help his mother. He often worked sweeping train cars. Then there was Saroo, who sometimes followed his older brother while he worked. In the end, it was the youngest sister, who had just learned to walk.

Saroo Brierley and moments when life changed

Each day, the two brothers went to work sweeping empty trains at the Burhanpur railway station. After a long day , little Saroo was so tired that he sat down on one of the station benches and fell asleep. This lure changed his life forever.

When he woke up, he did not see his older brother anywhere. He started calling for him, but he found nowhere. Saroo saw a train in front of the station and knew that his brother Guddu was probably sweeping the wagons. Thus, he got on the train to look for him. But Guddu was nowhere to be found and did not answer his cries. Then the train went to Calcutta and Saroo’s life as he felt it was over.

Meanwhile, Saroo’s mother was waiting at home for the two children to return home, but they never returned. On her own, she began to try to find out what had happened. After two months, she learned that Guddu had been found dead. Someone found him 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 could not speak very well and did not know the name of the city where he lived. When he got to the train station, he wanted to take a train back, but it was impossible. He lived at the station, slept among cardboard boxes and ate from the garbage.

There was a gang that kidnapped minors from the street, and they tried to kidnap him. Saroo ran as fast as he could and managed to escape, but he was afraid to return to the station.

His memories of that time are hunger and despair. It is not clear how it happened, but a teenager took him to a police station. From there he went to an orphanage with very rigid rules.

At the orphanage, they tried to find his family, but it was impossible. After a while, the orphanage placed him in an adoption program. Saroo was lucky 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 the homecoming

Saroo Brierley, however, could not forget the past he left behind. He still remembered his older brother, mother and younger sister.

When he went to college, a group of friends and his girlfriend decided to help him find important information : The city he came from. They did the calculations for all the cities that were 14 hours from Calcutta and started searching in Google Earth.

Another five years passed, before one day Saroo saw a water tower on the screen that looked familiar. He explored the places nearby, and they triggered something in his memory. Later he recognized a road and a bridge. He says that he jumped for joy because he had discovered where he came from.

Then he went to his hometown and started looking. By pure intuition he came to his mother’s house, but no one lived there anymore. Even though he had forgotten his mother tongue, he managed to gather some information. Finally, one day he arrived at his mother’s door.

She looked at him for a few minutes before recognizing him. Saroo says that this reunion after 25 years was the happiest moment in his life.

Shortly afterwards, he learned that his name was not “Saroo”, but “Sheru”. He did not know how to pronounce it when he was little, and so he ended up with a new name. “Sheru” means “lion”. A year later, he returned to his hometown with his adoptive mother and completed the cycle with loose ends and long-awaited hugs.