Each country sets its own rules and guidelines for adoption, which can make navigating those rules especially challenging for prospective parents. The first international law governing international adoption was passed months after Saroo’s adoption went through in 1987, and two more have followed in the years since. Legally, the second view has more traction. Some people, such as Sue Brierley (Saroo’s adoptive mother), believe that international adoption should be made easier and be less regulated so that more people will feel able to do it, while others take a child’s-rights standpoint and insist that there need to be more regulations guiding international adoption. The subject of international adoption can be a tricky one. He’s been back several times since, and is doing what he can to help his nieces and nephews, buy his mother a house, and support the orphanage in Calcutta that facilitated his adoption. He returned to Khandwa for the first time in 2011 and was able to reconnect with his mother, younger sister, and older brother. While he was in college, he began using Google Earth to look for his hometown, and he finally succeeded after five years of searching. He completed a degree in hospitality as a young man, but began working with his father in the family hosepipe business after graduating. Within seven months, he was adopted by a family in Tasmania, Australia and became Saroo Brierley. The birthday he celebrates is one given to him by the Calcutta authorities they estimated the year, and the month and day are the date that he arrived at the orphanage. He survived for weeks on the streets until he came to the attention of the authorities. When he was five, he mistakenly boarded a train for the city of Calcutta, one of the most dangerous cities in India. They were extremely poor, and Saroo and his siblings were often left home alone for days at a time.

His father effectively left the family when Saroo was very young, so Saroo, his brothers, and their mother had to do whatever they could to support the family. He was their third child and was actually born with the name Sheru. As Saroo’s memoir explains, he was born in the small central Indian town of Khandwa to a Muslim father and a Hindu mother.

A long way home kindle