Searching For Mum

[nowifi]

Is anyone watching this on BBC? About women looking for their adoptive parents in India. Really sad

Yes, watching. The search has not gone at all well for either of these adoptees

Oh. It's sad. Certainly not long lost families with Davina.

She was upset about the burial plot being sold. It's my understanding that her father didn't pay for the plot so was lucky to be buried there at all

Also, I missed the start. Fernandez doesn't sound Indian. Can anyone explain that?

Fernandez is an Anglo Indian name. Her family were christian. Probably Portuguese orginally.

I think the burial thing was the straw that broke the camel's back, poor women I really felt for both of them.

It was very moving, the photo of the would be mother if Layla (but actual kitchen worker) was captivating. I suggest that Layla goes back to Calcutta with an English/Bengali speaker as the woman that recognised The ‘mother’ obviously knew her but the adoptees didn’t understand her so didn’t push. The other search was terribly sad but I found the Anglo-Indian a fascinating subject.

This so sad and there are hundreds of other people in the same position..

Last weeks episode was based in Sri Lanka.

ut I found the Anglo-Indian a fascinating subject

It’s a special interest of mine as my grandfather was what’s known as a Calcutta Wallah. He was involved in the jute industry. My grandma and my dad never lived in India but I do know that a few years after my grandad returned home for the last time, things were changing, my grandma did open the door one day to an Indian woman and her daughter who was about 12. I’ve never got to the bottom of it but I have my suspicions.

Anyway, the BBC currently has some really good documentaries on about India that are running alongside the one mentioned in this thread. They’re well worth a watch.

One is called ‘A passage to Britain’ and I think part 3 is on in the next couple days. Part 1 and 2 are still available.

Another good one is The Stollen Maharaja.

In all I think there’s about 15 programmes tomchoose from.

It was interesting but I was surprised at the way it was done by BBC. The production team must have known how these homes operated and that any meeting with potential mother could be traumatic for the adoptee and the birth family. There are professional agencies speaking the local language and tracing relatives like in the first programme. The adoptee was prepared in advance and the local person talked to the family first. - I think the producers should only have followed it bring done like that.