Adopted four decades ago, Danish man returns in search of mom

CHENNAI: A Danish national David alias Shanthakumar, 40, is on a journey to trace his biological mother Thanalakshmi with the help of an NGO and a lawyer. During his earlier visit last June, David found his brother Rajan, who also happened to be living in Denmark. The two siblings were at the Madras Christian Children’s orphanage home in Pallavaram briefly before they were adopted by Danish people in the late 1970s.

In a major breakthrough in his attempt to rebuild his family tree, David discovered his mother’s photograph, which was preserved by a pastor wife. David’s lawyer Anjali Pawar said, “Till now, David had been searching for his mother Thanalakshmi and father Kaliamurthy, a carpenter. He found hope after he discovered his mother’s photograph.”

As luck would have it, Arun Dolly, co-founder of NGO Against Child-Trafficking, turned out to be a crucial link to David’s story. When Dolly told her mother about David’s search, she showed her some old photographs of children from the orphanage that she and her husband were associated with. It turned out that there was a photograph of David and his biological mother.

Anjali said, “Dolly is also looking for her mother’s sister, who was adopted by a Danish couple four decades ago.” While verifying Kaliamurthy’s residence in Perambur, Anjali said, “We have found a man Govindaraj, who had met Kaliamurthy and Thanalakshmi. Through him we managed to discover that Thanalakshmi has a brother, Murthy who works as an autorickshaw driver.”

In May 1978, Thanalakshmi, wife of Kaliamurthy from Thanjavur, had surrendered her children – Rajan and Santhakumar — to the orphanage. The children were rechristened Immanuel and David.