A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly

A Long Way Home

 

 

Version 1 

 

A long way home,

from train to train,

station to station,
A long way home.

 

A long way home,

from orphanage to orphanage,

city to city,

A long way home.

 

A long way home,

from plane to plane,

country to country,

A long way home.

 

A long way home,

from maps to reality,

corner to corner,

back to his family,

A long way home?

Not if you try! 

 

 

 

A Summary of the story

 

Saroo Brierley in his young age (4 years of age) was lost on a train and sped away from home.

A year later in his orphanage a Tassie (Tasmanian)couple came across him and decided to adopt him. Saroo did not know much about what happened to him that year he lost his home, but 26 years later he stumbled across Google Earth (which was in its early days back then) which started to intrigue him and urge him to find his family. He started his search from the train station in Calcutta (where he was sure to have been), chose a rail to follow and followed it. One day he finds the right one and takes a trip back to infancy.

He goes back to his old house and finds it abandoned and is about to leave when a man comes along. Saroo asks him about the family who used to live there and the man says "I will take you to your mother." Saroo finds his mother  sister brother nephews and brothers in law. He also finds out that all this time he had been mispronouncing his name which was really "Sheru" not "Saroo"

 

"I hate to think what would have happened if that man had not come. I would have been so close to my mother without knowing it and just turn away."

Quoted Saroo Brierley

 

 

Images;

 

This is Saroo Brierley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the book. The colours in the background is part of his trousers and the rails.

 

This is his Tassie family (far left is his adopted brother)

 

 



This is his Indian family



This is where he lives in Tasmania and where he lived in India

This is how far he traveled by train when he was 5