In 1986, five year old Saroo, a boy who lived in an village in India,
fell asleep on a train and got separated from his older brother. He accidently ended up in Calcutta, and did not remember the name of his own village or neighboring villages in order to communicate with any adult who might help, so he took to begging and remained lost. Later, he was taken in by an orphanage, then adopted by an Australian couple who took him back to Australia with them. That's when he became Saroo Brierley. Eventually, when the Internet came about, and Google Earth became available, Saroo did the math, calculating the amount of time it would take on a train from Calcutta to some of the other stops. His fateful "nap" had been fourteen hours, and with that information, he was able to rightly determine which village he had lived in as a child! He actually went home, to Khandwa, India, twentyfive years later! The news was not all good; his brother was deceased, but he still got to see his mom again.
It seems that some people in Northeast Kansas do not understand the role of cameras, google maps, surveillance, traffic light cameras, and the occasional cell phone picture that accidently includes a bit of stray scenery in the form of a home, lawn, or face belonging to anyone at all! Satellites operate cameras which can hone in on scenery with amazing detail, and pictures taken at traffic lights can often read license plates and pick up on other subtle details. Life is no longer private; but then, a picture always WAS worth a thousand words!
