A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley

Hey guys! So, I read this really good book this week and it a slightly different type of book for me and there was also a movie that I watched that was based on this book. The name of the book is "A Long Way Home". The movie was called "Lion" and I had no idea why until I got close to the end of the book and I will let you know why soon. "A Long Way Home" is a memoir written by Saroo Brierley. To begin, let me start off by telling you a bit about Saroo Brierley. Saroo Brierley is an Indian born- Australian Business man who today lives in Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. He was born in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India in 1981. He came to Tasmania at age five. The book he wrote was actually really memorable and so was the movie.

Now, what was "A Long Way Home" about? Saroo got separated from his mother at age five. It all started when he asked his older brother Guddu to take him to his workplace at the train station. Guddu at first told Saroo that he was too young to go to the train station for seeing his work, it was too dangerous, but then Saroo kept on asking and so Guddu finally said yes. Once they got to the train station, they took the train to Burhanpur and once they reached Burhanpur, Saroo was told to stay where he was (sit on the bench) until Guddu came back. Saroo did as he was told and then started to realize that it had been a long time since Guddu had not come back and so Saroo began about, looking for his brother. He got on to the train thinking that Guddu might be in it. While he was looking for Guddu, Saroo fell asleep on the train. When Saroo woke up, it was the daytime and he had no idea where he was. Saroo started banging on the doors and screaming and then after many hours or so, Saroo got off at the Kolkata station, the thing was though, that he did not know which station it was as he came from a very poor family and was illiterate. He went around asking people where he could go to get back to his home in "Ginestlay" (actually Ganesh Talai, he mispronounced it as a kid). No one had any clue where Ganesh Talai was. He kept on trying out trains to find out which one took him to Kolkata and he failed trying and so he gave up. He stayed at the train station overnight with the other poor kids but had to run away as there were kidnappers. He was lucky. Saroo had to then stay on the streets of Kolkata for months until he was taken into a juvenile home to stay temporarily until he moved into the orphanage. 

Once he was taken into the orphanage, a few months later he was given the offer to be adopted by a couple in Australia and by taking the right decision, Saroo agreed to be adopted by the couple in Australia. Once he reached Australia, he lived a much better life and after twenty five years, he started wondering about his biological mother and so with the help of google earth and other friends in college, he tries to find his home in India.

The reason the movie was called "Lion" was because Saroo had actually mispronounced his name. His actual name was Sheru, meaning a lion. He kept on calling himself Saroo and whenever people would ask his name, he would tell them Saroo. Even though he found out how his name was actually pronounced, he still decides to call himself Saroo, he had become Saroo now.


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