Lost in 1977, Minnesota woman makes 13k km journey to retrace Kolkata roots | Kolkata News - The Times of India
olkata: A 52-year-old India-born US citizen is now in Kolkata, scouring B T Road and neighbourhoods along the Kolkata-Barrackpore route, trying to retrace her roots from the labyrinth of govt and adoption-home records and the cobwebs of a six-year-old girl's memory.
Tempori Thomas was five when she got lost from her old home and six when she found a new home around 13,000km away in Minnesota, US. "I got lost on a short-distance local train ride on December 14, 1977 while out picking firewood and charcoal for preparing dinner for my family," Thomas said.
She can recall Khardah police station, where she reached — with a stranger's help — after two days of straying. She stayed there for a day and was shifted to a home for widows, until she ended up at Presidency jail in Dec.
She stayed there until Sept 1978, before she was flown out to Minnesota with help of an orphanage and adoption NGO, International Mission of Hope in Kolkata.
Thomas, who reached Kolkata on Saturday with her friends Rebecca Peacock (49) and 47-year-old Manu Erickson (who have similar lost-and-adopted stories), spent Sunday touring the suburbs around Khardah PS from 10am to 3pm.
"It was the same back door I sat at after reaching the police station. There was a tube well nearby, where I cleaned my face," said Tempori Thomas after reaching the front of the old building of Khardah PS, which now houses the Sodepur traffic guard.
Thomas has two children— Ashley (31) and Estelle (33). She said her father used to work at a ‘bidi' factory as a daily wage labourer; her mother was a domestic help. "I was the youngest. My brother was the middle child. He had a speech-impairment problem. I also had an elder sister," she said. She also managed to remember that she used to travel by double-decker bus with her mother to her grandparents' home and that there was a concrete boundary wall and a "big church on the left" on her way back home.
Thomas also visited Barrackpore's Chiria More on Sunday — which she remembers as a "big crossing with a roundabout" — as well as Khardah rail station, but failed to track her faded past. "Today, at certain points, I felt I was really close to my target. My search will continue and I will take help of Google Earth to pinpoint the location before coming back to Kolkata next year," said Thomas, who has been running a house-cleaning business for 30 years.
Thomas was inspired and decided to search for her roots in India after reading the book ‘A Long Way Home', the story of Indian-Australian Saroo Brierley, who was adopted by Australian parents and managed o reunite with his birth mother in India after 25 years. The story was adapted into the 2016 film ‘Lion', directed by Garth Davis.
Although Thomas cannot speak any Indian language, she has kept one bridge with her country of birth: Amitabh Bachchan.
I was just 12 years old and visited an Indian grocery shop near my home town, where I first noticed a tape of his movies — ‘Sholay', ‘Coolie', ‘Amar Akbar Anthony' — for sale. I bought all three and watched and rewatched the movies," Thomas said.
A huge Big B fan, Thomas could barely conceal her excitement when she saw various characters played by him etched on a coffee mug and a phone back cover at the TOI office. "I am so fond of him," she said, even asking how one could order a Bachchan-adorned phone cover online.
But more serious things beckon now. The three friends — linked by a common country of birth and a destiny that has so many features in common — did DNA ancestry tests to find their roots and also ran a Facebook page titled "Lost Sarees" with a hope to unite Indian adoptees. Thomas plans to wind up her search and leave on Wednesday. But she plans to come back again to retrace their roots.