Saroo Brierley

We were a sport-oriented family. Because I was athletic, I made friends easily.

Indians in general are sort of thick-skinned and hard to be moved.

I'm a pretty laid-back kind of person.

Follow your own path.

I'm still so grounded and so regimented, too. I've developed myself for such a long time - my characteristics and who I am - that if I try to change myself, my origins will pull me back.

I don't get asked this much - 'Would you ever wanna see your father again?' And the answer there is that I would like to see him again.

For a couple that wants to have a child, there's the option of IVF, but then have a look at adoption as well.

Why make life so dull when you can make it exciting and meet amazing people and go to countries and see things? You make life the way you want it to be. A lot of people don't realize that at the end of the day, the ultimate control of what you do and your destiny, it lies in the way you want to direct yourself.

It was a very scary place to be. I don't think any mother or father would like to have their five year old wandering alone in the slums and train stations of Calcutta.

A lot of people forget that anything is accomplishable if you embrace technology.

I knew I'd been given another chance, another life in Australia by my parents, so I didn't want to hurt them.

I've moved to Australia, to amazing parents who gave me unconditional love, to being educated and submerged in an amazing country and society.

I don't really have a worldview.

I do get recognised, but not as much as someone like Dev Patel or Nicole Kidman.

I don't have a birth certificate.

Each time I go away internationally or even to the mainland, I always love coming back to Tasmania.

I tell my friends that 'you don't know how lucky you are to be in Tasmania, because when you go away internationally, you get to see it in its glory.'

I need to be mentally stimulated.

The Hindi film that connects with my life story the most is the movie 'Hero' - two brothers being lost and sort of coming back.

My past was always there. And I always understood that I was adopted. It wasn't like a massive issue to me. But identity was an issue. I knew that I was Indian, but I didn't really know much about myself, really. I mean, I really disassociated myself from what happened in the past to present. But, it was affecting in regards to identity.

What happened in my past happened. What's the term - don't cry over spilled milk? That's the thing people don't understand. I'm all right. I configured myself into coming out on the other end OK. I can disassociate myself.

At the end of the day, I think people just need to start listening to their hearts and their gut feelings and their dreams, because that's what I did.

When I came to Australia in 1987 as an adoptee from India, I could not have had any idea where my life journey would take me.

My quest to find my first family would never have been actualized without technology.

It's easy to blame technology for what we perceive to be a vast disconnect between people. We're so wrapped up in social media, texting, online dating - in many ways, we're addicted to our devices.