Lion

This story is Un. Be. Lievable. Having lived in India for a number of years, I just cannot fathom how anyone could find a family they lost there when they were 5 years old, despite not even knowing their real name.  Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to do just that. He was lost from his family after begging his brother to take him to work on the train tracks one evening. He was told to wait on the platform but fell asleep, and when he awoke, assumed his brother must have gotten back on the train. He then climbed aboard himself and feel asleep again, only to wake up on a moving train, all alone, with no idea where he was going.

Somehow, this incredible little boy survived living for weeks at Kolkata train station. Unlike in NZ, a child alone would not necessarily inspire compassion in those passing by. There are so many children begging for money in Indian train stations, most people try their hardest to just ignore them. So it was for Saroo. But by some miracle he made it out alive and found himself adopted to a family in Australia.  Twenty plus years later he began searching for home, obsessively scouring Google Earth for landmarks he had committed to memory in his many imagined walks through his home town. And somehow, he did it.