A man from India, who got lost from his mother when he was only five years old, found her using the Google Earth application.

In 1986, Saroo Brierley fell asleep in the train he was traveling in and he woke up after 14 hours, in Calcutta. As he didn’t knew how to write or read, it was impossible for him to find his way back home. He was also unable to say the name of his home town. For a while he lived on the street and later he was adopted by a family from Tasmania.

After 25 years he “returned” to India with the help of the Google Earth application, an application that allows you to travel thousands of miles with just a few clicks.” I felt like Superman! You can take mental photos of some places and ask yourself if you recognize anything” Saroo said.

“I calculated the time i spent traveling by train, almost 14 hours, and the speed trains travel in India and i got a distance – around 1,200 km” he says. Knowing where to look, Saroo found the city of Khandwa. When he zoomed in he recognized places from his hometown, including the waterfall where he used to play when he was a child.

After this, he traveled to his hometown, for real this time, but he was disappointed to see that the house where he grew up was empty. However, he decided to ask around about his mother and he managed to find her.