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Dec 30, 2017pokano rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The story in this memoir is what the wonderful 2016 film Lion, starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, and Sunny Pawar, is all about. Saroo, a 5-yr old Indian boy, born into abject poverty, boards a train, thinking his older brother is on board. He falls asleep and the next thing he knows, the train is moving and he can't get out of the empty car he's in. Unbeknownst to him, the train takes him across India to Calcutta, where he leaves the train for a life in the streets. Because he speaks only Hindi, (and doesn't speak it well) and is illiterate, he cannot communicate well with Calcutta locals to explain his plight. Nor can he adequately tell anyone where his family--his mother who makes a living carrying rocks at construction sites, two older brothers, and a younger sister--lives. He knows only that the train station where he boarded the train had a name that started with a "B" and that his home is somehow connected with "Ginestaly." After several months navigating the dangers of the Calcutta streets, he finally ends up in an orphanage, which unsuccessfully attempts to find his family, unaware that the family is located on the other side of the country. Saroo is eventually adopted by wonderful parents in Tasmania, Australia, where he gets an education and lives a happy, comfortable life. Twenty-five years later, he manages to do the impossible: with the help of Google Earth, Facebook, his childhood memories, and luck, he tracks down the train station (Burhanpur), his home village (Ganesh Talai) ,and his family. This amazing improbable story is well worth the quick read it is. The humanity of both families and the author shines from every page. And be sure to see the movie, which closely, but not completely, tracks the true story.