Saroo Brierley Reunited With Mother Fatima Munshi After 25 Years

> An Indian man who tracked down his family after becoming separated from them as an infant 25 years ago says he has no plans to move back to the the village where he was born.

And Saroo Brieley has also revealed he has found it difficult to forge a bond with his mother after so many years apart.

Mr Brierley was just five years old when he went missing from his home town of Ganesh Talaiin 1987. The youngster was begging with his elder brother at Khandwa train station in west India  when he accidentally boarded a train that took him on a 900-mile journey to Calcutta.

Lost and unable to speak the local dialect, Mr Brieley was placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by an Australian family in Tasmania.

Magic moment: Mr Brierley pictured with his mother, Fatima Munshi, when they met for the first time in 25 years in February

But Mr Brierley never forgot his roots and, as a young man, began scouring the internet in search of the village he once called home. His ten-year quest finally ended when he located his village on Google Earth earlier this year.

He then joined a Facebook group for his home town and managed to piece together the details by emailing members of the group.

And his extraordinary story made international headlines in February when he flew back to India and was finally reunited with his mother.  

Never give up: Hobart resident Mr Brierley spent more than a decade searching for his hometown on the internet

But after an emotional reunion, Mr Brieley has now revealed that he wants to remain in Tasmania - and has also had problems re-building his relationship with his original family.

Although Mr Brierley - who now helps run the family industrial supplies business in Hobart - regularly wires his Indian mother money, she refuses to spend it unless he gives it to her personally. He also finds it difficult to speak with his Indian family because he no longer speaks their language.

'I'm not able to talk to them all the time - it's just hard for me,' he said.

'I've got to be very careful with everything, you see. I don't want to upset my family here [in Tasmania] and give too much attention to my family in India. This is where I live. When I come back, whether it's sooner or later, then we can start building our relationship again.

Mr Brierley added that he does not regret tracking his family down - and is now planning to make a film about his amazing story.

'It's sort of taken a weight off my shoulders," he said.

'Instead of going to bed at night and thinking, "How is my family? Are they still alive?" I know in my head now I can let those questions rest.

'Just stay calm and be happy that I'm alive and you know where I am,'

Mr Brierley's mother, Fatima, is also uncertain about her future relationship with her son, saying that she understood why he did not wish to return to his poverty-stricken homeland.

'For the moment it's enough for me that I went to him and he called me Amma [Mother]," she said.



source & image credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

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