Hi, my name is Saroo Brierley and this is my mother Susanne and we're going Back to
School with Student Edge.
Hi, I'm Simon Miraudo and today we're going Back to School with Saroo and Sue Brierley.
Thanks so much for chatting with us today.
Thanks for having us.
Well, look, your story is an incredible one, but did you ever imagine it would, first of all,
become a movie, let alone one starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman?
No, never, you know?
It was just really, at the end of the day, I was just doing something my heart sort-of pushed me
towards.
That was trying to find this anomaly that had been pickling my head for such a long
time; this oddity.
For me it was just: try and achieve and defuse the thought, try to find answers I was being
pushed towards.
But I'm humbled and touched that it's become a movie and had so much amazing recognition
towards it.
And Sue when you adopted a child from India, could you have foreseen, 30 years later, here
we'd be?
No I couldn't have foreseen that, but I always knew that Saroo was a fairly unique and special
person.
Just had a gut feeling; so really, anything he does does not surprise me.
That's just how he is.
I'm really quite passionate about that view.
Well, Saroo, again, as people will learn from Lion, or have learnt already from your book,
it's this incredible story.
You grew up in India, were separated from your birth mother and brother, you were homeless
and eventually adopted by Sue and John in Tasmania.
What are some of your earliest memories of India?
My earliest memories, the ones that I sort of cherish a lot, are with my brothers I guess.
Doing things with them.
Playing and playing in the dam that we used to, because I didn't really get to see much
of them.
Being there with my sister and my mum, and just, I guess, being a nuclear family, where
we all came home together and have a bit of food, what we could afford at that time, because,
you know, that was quite, well, it wasn't regular, being together at one time.
Everyone was doing their own things; there was no curfews or anything like that.
But I think just, really, at the end of the day, in essence, being a family and being
home together.
And that's what I really liked.
But yeah, you know, we went through adversity, lived in the slums and pretty much battled
every day to stay alive.
Sue when did you come to understand what Saroo had actually gone through in India?
Well, it was only when he could speak enough English to convey that story and that came
out bit by bit.
As his language improved he could tell me more.
I wrote it all down and documented it in diaries because I just thought it was important for
his later years to have this information.
And in fact, some of the things I wrote in the diary assisted him in his search, even though
I couldn't spell the names of the places he was telling me.
I found out afterwards how far out we were.
But the actual things he told me were really accurate.
So, it's quite amazing he remembered with such clarity.
And then what about going to school?
Again, when you're in Australia, adjusting to school life, you don't speak the language,
to begin with, for the most part, and the culture shock alone must be something.
What are your memories of going to school in those early days?
Look, going to school was one of those things that I really wanted to do, because in India,
we couldn't afford to go to school, but I used to watch the kids when I was five years old in India,
going to school and coming out of school, and was one of the things: "I wish I could do that" and
also have friends as well.
So, coming to Australia, it was like a dream come true.
Where, here I am in such a sort-of different world from what I'd been used to, and this
opportunity to go to school and make new friends, which, you know, I made really easily.
And also to learn about things and I guess the language as well.
The English language.
So that was really sort of gratifying and endearing.
I'd been yearning for that also for such a long time and never in my sort of wildest
dream, back then in India, had I ever thought that I'd be going to school.
But I'm really happy and just really humbled and touched that I guess I've had another
chance at life in Australia, and to be with an amazing family that gave that unconditional
love and friends that I've made since I was a kid, right till now, and are still there.
We have a unique opportunity here, which we don't often get to when we're interviewing
people, is to ask their actual mother, or their parent, what they were like as a teenager.
Sue, I want to know, what was Saroo like as a teenager?
Well...
Say something nice.
You get to comment afterwards if that was a fair assessment or not.
No, Saroo was, right from the moment he came into our lives, he was a very compliant child.
He was purely motivated, I'm sure of that.
He was grateful for the opportunity of being able to go to school.
When he was little he'd come home and say, "I've been learning like magic."
And it was so sweet.
I just loved that.
And then furthermore, when I went to India and I saw the gates where he used to stand
and look longingly through, it really broke my heart.
It made me understand that really he just wanted to make the best of his life.
So, really, I didn't suffer badly through Saroo's teenage years.
He was a bit cranky here and there as boys will be but overall he was always incredibly
focused and that's the reason he was successful in his search.
He made up his mind that he was going to do something.
He educated himself to be able to do so.
He used all the tools that were available and fortunately Google Earth was invented
and he just went for it.
To this day I think he could really do anything he put his mind to and I'm so proud that I
can say Saroo's got a degree, he's a successful businessman and a support to us in our business,
and all from that tiny little boy who couldn't speak...
He could speak one word of English when he arrived, and that was Cadbury.
And I didn't realise that for a whole year, that that was the word he was saying to me.
I just felt so bad because he had a block of melted chocolate in his hand, and there's
no Hindi word for chocolate.
Sure.
Just Cadbury.
So you kept asking for these chocolates.
In his little accent, I just didn't get the word.
That's lovely.
Look, that's a pretty good review, I will say, overall, of a teenager, so you've done
well there.
I will say, when you did begin that search, Sue, again did you feel like, "At some point he's
probably gonna want to know where he came from or try and find his way to his birth
mother"?
Or were you quite surprised by Saroo coming to you and saying, "I'm actually on this journey"?
No, I wasn't really, because Saroo doesn't surprise me.
He's doing everything... he was very heartfelt about his need.
We'd nurtured his identity as far as being Indian.
We validated that by our way of living.
By our decor.
Our food.
Everything about our life with Saroo was validating and respecting the fact he was an Indian child.
I was really happy about that because here was a chance for me to convey to his mother
and show her how Saroo was, how beautiful he was, and how he'd grown.
How strong he was.
Educated.
I was really proud to be able to show that to Saroo's first mother.
Congrats on the film and the book of course, and thanks so much for your time today.
Thank you, thanks for having us.
Great meeting you.
Hey everyone.
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