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I don’t know what that was worth then, but now one rupee is equivalent to 1.6 cents, so less than a penny for 6 hours of washing dishes. Still, it wasn’t enough, so Guddu, the oldest at ten, went to work, washing dishes for 6 hours for half a rupee. Kamla, Saroo’s mother, worked 6 days a week, morning until nightfall, hard physically grueling work, sometimes gone for days at a time. Broken, unpaved streets outside throughout the poverty-stricken neighborhood. When Saroo’s father left his mother and their family for another woman, another family, they moved from the Hindu community / side of town to the Muslim side moving into a single room falling apart with a cowpat and mud floor and a small corner fireplace. Sad, horrifying, wondrous, life affirming, heartbreaking and heartwarming. “So incredible that sometimes it reads like a work of fiction.” –Winnipeg Free Press (Canada) Soon to be a major motion picture starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, this #1 international best-seller tells the miraculous and triumphant story of a young man who rediscovers not only his childhood life and home.but an identity long-since left behind.> It celebrates the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit: hope. Lion is a moving, poignant, and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds. One day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for and set off to find his family. Eventually, with the advent of Google Earth, he had the opportunity to look for the needle in a haystack he once called home, and pore over satellite images for landmarks he might recognize or mathematical equations that might further narrow down the labyrinthine map of India. Unable to read or write or recall the name of his hometown or even his own last name, he survived alone for weeks on the rough streets of Calcutta before ultimately being transferred to an agency and adopted by a couple in Australia.ĭespite his gratitude, Brierley always wondered about his origins. At only five years old, Saroo Brierley got lost on a train in India.
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