Family thought they lost their 5-year-old forever — 25 years later, a man showed up at their doorstep and changed their lives

Mothers ensure that their kids are always by their side and even a flickering moment without them instills panic and worry. Unfortunately, Saroo's mother, Fatima Munshi, had been aching with this panic and pain after her son went missing in 1986, per The Guardian. The then 5-year-old was working on one of the trains of Indian Railways when he fell asleep, per BBC Magazine. However, after waking up, he found himself in a completely unknown location, lost, alone and unbeknownst to what was to follow. 25 years later, his mom was baffled to see a man deliver the most unexpected news to her. 

Saroo was accompanying his elder brother to work at a railway station when he was asked to wait on a stationary train. However, he fell asleep and had no clue the train had departed the station. 14 hours later, he woke up in Kolkata (then Calcutta), miles away from his family. "I just started to look for people and ask them questions,” he said. “I could remember it right now so vividly. I went on my knees and cried,” he said, per Good Morning Britain. Saroo took to begging to fend for himself while on his quest to find his mother. The mom, too, made a frantic search without losing hope. “I went to Hyderabad, Bombay, Ajmer, Bhopal and Delhi to find him. I was determined to find Sheru (Saroo),” she said. Unfortunately, things didn’t work. Over time, he was picked up by an orphanage and a Tasmanian couple, the Brierleys, adopted him. "I accepted that I could not find my way back home,” he remarked.

Saroo’s heart ached to find his biological mother. He used the best he could to unravel the mystery — his mental imagery and Google Earth. "You can go over and take a photo mentally and ask, 'Does this match?' And when you say, 'No, ' you keep on going and going and going,” he explained. "I multiplied the time I was on the train, about 14 hours, with the speed of Indian trains and I came up with a rough distance, about 1,200km,” Saroo remarked. He then circled Calcutta and looked for places that showed up after the distance. After much research, he stumbled upon “Khandwa," a city in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

“When I found it, I zoomed down and bang, it just came up. I navigated it from the waterfall where I used to play,” Saroo exclaimed. The man now had to navigate what he saw online in person as he made his way to his hometown. After speaking with neighbours, a man finally recognized him and reunited him with his mother. When he reached the house where his family lived, he knocked on the door and recognised the woman standing inside. "The last time I saw her, she was 34 years old. But the facial structure was still there. I recognised her and I said, 'Yes, you are my mother,’” Saroo noted.

His mother didn’t say a word. She simply grabbed his hand and took him inside her home. Though they couldn’t communicate due to a language barrier, two words, “Sheru," “Maa (Mother),” and overwhelming tears said it all. The duo caught up, and Saroo learned that shortly after his disappearance, his older brother died in a tragic railway accident. The long search of 25 years came with lessons, aches, joys and so much that it became a journey of its own. Saroo recorded this journey in his autobiography, “A Long Way Home." 

Saroo's autobiography was adapted into a film, "Lion." Featuring Sunny Pawar as little Saroo and Dev Patel as the grown-up version of him, along with Nicole Kidman and others, the movie brought to the silver screen what Saroo had to suffer. Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie received 6 Oscar nominations and 5 nominations at the 70th British Academy Film Awards. The man visits his biological mom frequently while also fulfilling his duty as a son to the Brierleys. "It has taken the weight off my shoulders. I sleep a lot better now,” Saroo remarked.