![]() Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. ![]() When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines. Hopefully, one day I would get to learn a native language.A true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds, now the major motion picture Lion starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. It's just something I have to do when I get free time. It's one of those things on my bucket list to do. I have no one to talk to really in Hindi. It was 25 years of searching and hope and determination that got me what I was looking for, for such a long time. I went to bed and woke up the next morning really early, and went back to it to see if I had been dreaming. When I found it - the train station I had boarded at age five on that fateful night - I zoomed out and it was called Burhanpur and not Berhampur, the way I pronounced it. Now you may want to call it serendipity or providence. most of the times while searching I would doze off, wake up and then go back. It was late at night, around 2 o' clock, and I had been searching. I went on a different path of finding answers. I was 26-27 and it was the perfect time for people that I knew in Australia to be married, to have an amazing job or go to another country. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. It took a long time, and there were many stages and phases when you walked away in dismay. when I was using Google Earth (Saroo reunited with his biological mother 25 years later, thanks to Google Earth) that's what I was trying to find. a water tank, a flyover, a ravine, a horseshoe entrance to the train station. What I remembered was the architecture of my hometown, the landmarks. Everything that has happened to me is destiny. The more I go there, I don't feel scared anymore. Now I always go to the Howrah train station. I almost drowned in the Hooghly river twice. and I had to fight to stay alive in Calcutta. I had never stepped out of the safety net of my hometown. It was an extremely scary time for me, very alienating. I was calling for my brother, mother, sister, and no one would help me. I stepped off the platform and there was a river of people. My (earliest) memories of Calcutta are very vivid. ![]() Nicole spent a lot of time with my (adoptive) mom (Sue), talking to her as well. He told his manager that he would just like to concentrate on that. Dev Patel took eight months to perfect the Australian accent and the characteristics of Saroo. it was enthralling and captivating for me to the point of shedding tears. It just pulled me back in, to the time I spent on the train. When I saw the first cut of Lion, I was clinging to my seat. ![]() Saroo's memoir, A Long Way Home, has inspired the film Lion starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman. I would like to bring my adoptive mom and dad with me to Calcutta," said Saroo at the Kolkata Literature Festival, held in association with The Telegraph, at Milan Mela on Saturday evening. I haven't had the time to come here as a tourist without work being involved on the side and relax. "It would be a great way to enjoy Calcutta with my adoptive parents. Now, Indian-born-Australian businessman-cum-author Saroo Brierley, who has been to Calcutta 15 times in the last four years, would like to bring his adoptive parents - John and Sue Brierley - with him to the city. Subsequently, he was put in an orphanage and adopted by an Australian couple. 5: At age five he accidentally boarded a train at Khandwa, in Madhya Pradesh, and ended up wandering the streets of Calcutta, all alone, lost and "scared". Saroo Brierley at a special Calcutta premiere of Lion at INOX (Quest mall) on Sunday.
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