Proving that the innerwebs is capable of minor miracles beyond just HBO Go and streaming porn, 30-year-old Saroo Brierley returned to his home in India with the help of Google Earth and Facebook after going missing 25 years earlier.
In 1987, a then-five-year-old Brierley had traveled to the city to beg with his older brother. On his return trip home, he fell asleep on the train and ended up across the country (fyi: India is huge). After almost drowning in the Ganges River and being sold into slavery, Brierley was declared “a lost child” by the state. A couple from Australia then adopted him, where he lived and later studied at the University of Canberra.
Over the course of the past decade, Brierley searched for his original family and using Google Earth, he was able to find matches of locations from his distant memory. He then found a Facebook group dedicated to his town, prompting him to hop on a plane and search his old village on foot for his family.
He finally reconnected with them, and now plans to make a movie. Can you say, “Oscars?”
[via Gizmodo]
