INDIA: John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home (Part Six)

Yesterday hit my one month mark since we stepped foot at John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home. (This was supposed to be uploaded on the mark, but it woukdn't have come out as it did).

It's a long one, but this part means the world to me. It was an experience that will stay with me.

The point of our trip to India was to go here and Kodangal to see where I spent my time when I was here. We wanted to explore the life I never knew.

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Before I continue about the trip, during the trip, my mom remembered a video she received from a doctor that visited the orphanage two months before my dad went. She got it transferred to DVD and some photos will compare it from 1999 to now, as well as some other content.

Mujahid met us at 8 AM and we were on our way. Although I brought a book to read, I could not keep my eyes off how beautiful the country was.

We arrived to Tandur and came to a long drive that looked like the one my dad remembers. It wasn't it, but the principal of the school directed us 10 km down to it.

We saw another long drive. We drove down it. We saw the gate and that was it. We made it to the orphanage.

My parents started to tear up and I was in a state of slight shock that we made it to where we've anticipated for the past 19 years.

We met Baji, her husband, and their children. We gave each child Rs 100 before we went into the house. Supriya held onto that money the entire time we were there.

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We went inside, then we went outside and waited for the owner to come. At one point, Mujahid went to the mosque to pray. My dad and I were making jokes to keep ourselves calm even though we were three hours from Hyderabad with no one to help us!

Back in 1999, the orphanage sent some photos of the orphanage because parents wanted to know where their kids were. They made it look a lot nicer than it was. Dad said it didn't look much different from now than when he went there in 1999.

A big jeep came racing up the drive and there the owner was. We shortly found out that it was Savitri Puttaraju Samson (Kumar). We were all in shock that we were sitting in front of her and my dad had been in a van with her 19 years ago.

She told us stories that were iffy and not knowing what to believe. That is when the apprehensiveness came back.

She wanted us to bring Suresh to America and sponsor him.

After dinner, we got to explore the nursery's building. It was a bit creepy to be there. I had imagery of the kids running around. It wasn't exactly a happy place, but at least there are kids that made it out.

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We think my biological mother could've been a staff member because one woman was attached to me (discussed in "What I Knew"). The other reason is because there were stories that Mr. Sanjeeva Rao (Kumar's husband) raped the women staff. It would be no surprise that they would have to put the baby there. Unfortunately, Dad didn't recognise the women in the video, so we don't know.

Kumar went to take a nap, so we asked Suresh if she'd be ok with us giving Baji and her husband some money. He said no, which was disappointing, but we're sure she would've taken it from her.

Baji and her husband met at Kumar's orphanage, got married, and had the three older girls. The youngest, Supriya, is an orphan, but definitely seemed to adopt the family as hers. Baji and her family live down the road separately, but help Kumar out.

We needed to know about Kodangal. Kumar said her and Suresh would meet us there around 10:30 AM. She also said she owns an orphanage outside of Kodangal and I'm sure she wanted money.

?She wanted to take me to the store right as we were to leave because she wanted me to get new clothes, but that would've been quite uncomfortable to go alone. She made the girls bring out two pairs of earrings they made and red studs.

We said our goodbyes and got out of there. We went back to Hyderabad.

You may wonder why I put the orphanage name blatantly as the title. Well, I want it to show in searches so if someone else as there, they contact me. Kumar can scare me all the wants, but I'm trying not to be a paranoid mess all the time.

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?Later, my mom did some digging. She read many articles. One which included...

??We're almost positive that the darker baby in her left hand is me.

She came across this blog, "Three and a Mistry" where four guys had a strangely similar story to us. She contacted him and he responded. They talked a bit and we are supposed to meet at some point since they aren't far from us.

Mom wasn't pleased on seeing Savitri the next day. We were excited to go to Kodangal after the exciting day in Tandur.

If you were at, involved with, or adopted from John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home, please contact me.

Further discussion on the Doctor's video

We got to watch this on Monday, the 19th.

The video is quite personal, so I didn't want to share the woman or her child's faces.

You get to see the first time they meet and it is such a heartwarming image. The baby attaches quickly to her mother and the mother is dearly in love. It is magical to say the least.

The people seem to be well attentive and the orphanage looks in order. Probably because they did not want to make it look bad especially if she was going to show parents in America.

At the end of the video as the woman prepares to leave, a woman staff member is holding the baby (we suspect she is Kumar's daughter) and says, "You'll come back to see her, won't you?" It thought that was quite strange because obviously, she wants her baby to come to her, and she did say that to the woman. The attitude was off-putting.

It was interesting to see how it looked back then. My father has a few photos, he even had photos of the kids and me with all the women. However, he was directed to smash it in Chennai in order to get my visa to take me out of India, so he did. He still had some photos, but I can't search for them now in our deep piles of photos.

I hope this woman got her baby shortly thereafter her visit. If you or your daughter are reading this/watched the video, thank you.