Lost at Howrah Station, Found Through Google Earth

Saroo Brierley was born Sheru Munshi Khan into a poor family in Khandwa, in Madhya Pradesh in central India. The family lived in a slum. He never went to school and mostly looked after his younger sister. He and his older brother Guddu often played near the railway station and did small chores for passengers to earn a few rupees.

In 1986, when he was five, he went with Guddu to the nearby town of Burhanpur. At the next station Guddu told him to wait on the platform while he went to find food. Saroo fell asleep, woke up, and boarded a train he believed would take him home. It was going the other way. Fourteen hours later he reached Howrah station in Kolkata, more than 1,500 kilometres from home. He could not speak Bengali and did not know the name of his town.

For the next couple of months he lived on the streets, searching bins for food, sleeping on platform benches and avoiding police who chased homeless people away. Other street children tried to help him get home but gave up when he could not say where home was. He ran away from two strangers who offered him food, shelter and a ticket, saying he could not trust anyone. A social worker eventually placed him in a care home, where he was put up for adoption.

Sue and John Brierley, a couple from Tasmania, adopted him. Years later, while studying business and hospitality, he began searching on Google Earth from his memories of landmarks. After more than five years he spotted a station whose water tank, bridge and small river matched what he remembered, and he identified his home town.

On 12 February 2012, almost 25 years after boarding the train, he returned to Khandwa and was led to his family's house, where his mother was waiting. He called the meeting bittersweet and said it gave him closure. His memoir A Long Way Home became the film Lion, which received six Oscar nominations.