Mysore: Jolly Sandberg had first come to 'Ashraya' an institution for adoption in Bengaluru when she was barely five-year-old, and alone. A few years later, when she left the place in 1992, she had a family, who took her to Sweden with them.
Thirty two years later since she was sent on Inter Country adoption, Sandberg was back in Karnataka, but she was not alone this time. The 39-year-old adoptee has travelled all the way from Sweden to Mysuru in quest to find her roots and origin in Mysuru, Maddur and Channapatna.
"I need to know something about my past in order to understand myself. Also, I want to tell my two-year-old daughter where I come from and show her, teach her and experience my first home in my country India, which I love and respect,” she said.
Sandberg has come to India along with her husband Erric and her daughter, and in-laws, with unwavering resolve to unravel the mysteries of her past and embrace her true identity.
Speaking about her experience as adoptee in Sweden, Sandberg said, "I always felt rootlessness in my new country Sweden. People looked different than me, talked differently, acted differently. It was a completely different world for an almost 8-year-old and it was scary.
"After a while I learnt to adapt, in order to survive and lead a normal life. I had to repress my Kannada language and my memories of my first 8 years in India. When I grew up, the longing and questions of who I am/was started growing," she said.
Named as Janu at birth, Jolly approached Arun Dohle, director of Against Child Trafficking (ACT), Netherlands and Advocate Anjali Pawar of Adoptee Rights Council, Pune, in 2017. Janu has visited India earlier also in 2020.
"After intensive search operation, I found Jolly Sandberg, formerly named Janu was born on June 3, 1985 as daughter of Vasantha from Maddur. Her mother was married to a man from Mysuru, who allegedly committed suicide when Janu was three year old," Anjali Pawar said, adding that her mother also passed away at her second husband's house in around 1989.
Janu was handed over to her grandmother's neighbour who had put her in a boarding school and admitted her to St Mary's Convent in Bengaluru in 1989.
According to Anjali, the neighbours in Maddur said that everyone on her mother's side had died. "Now she is looking for relatives on father's side in Mysuru or any relatives in Maddur or Channapatna," she added.