Maps very quickly become extremely important documents for Saroo: Mum pins up a map of India in his bedroom, and together, the two draw a map of Saroo’s hometown and the town where he boarded the train for Calcutta. Saroo fixates on the map in his room, and later on the maps made available to him via the program Google Earth. For Saroo, maps hold the key to piecing together his past—assuming he can reconcile “Ginestlay” and “Berampur” with the actual places recorded on maps. Maps then come to represent Saroo’s hope and idealism in attempting to find his home, and particularly in terms of Google Earth, they illustrate how technology and social networking can help illuminate incomplete or childish memories.
Maps and Google Earth Quotes in A Long Way Home
...Khandwa Railway Station.
The name meant nothing to me.
My stomach knotted. How could this be?
Things had looked so right all the way from Burhanpur, which had to be the "B" town I had tried to remember. But if the bridge and the river were correct, where was "Ginestlay"?
Maps and Google Earth Symbol Timeline in A Long Way Home
