Cut off from old world, they reconnect with Indian roots

For 39-year-old Santosh Norrman, it is his third visit to Pune since he was adopted as an eight-month infant but the first for his eldest daughter who, he told The Indian Express, has been very excited about the trip. “We first visited the rural outskirts of Chennai where my adoptive parents, Renee and Conny Norrman, have set up a school. Then we visited Goa and now I took her to the foster care home in Pune,” Santosh said.

A counsellor at a school gym in Sweden, Santosh was brought up by late Karuna Singh who was his foster mother. Dipika Maharaj Singh, former trustee of Shree Vatsa, a childcare centre run by the Society of Friends of Sassoon General Hospital (SOFOSH) and who has now set up Samarpan Programme for Adoption, Research, Counselling and Consultancy (SPARCC), said, Santosh as a baby was extremely ill. “We were not too sure he would survive and hence, sent him to foster care.”

While Santosh recovered and soon adjusted to a new way of life in Sweden, he admitted that there was a need to have biological children. “Look I have been cut off from my roots. I did visit my biological mother’s place and it was an emotional experience for me. I really do not have any feelings to locate them. That chapter is closed. Renee and Conny Norrman are my parents,” he said, adding, that this was also one of the reasons why he wanted his own biological family.

Along with Santosh, another girl, Sudha, who was at Shree Vatsa was also adopted by the Swedish couple, who later became a priest. According to Madhuri Abhyankar, Programme Director at SPARCC, Sudha returned to Pune to adopt a girl and while she had her own biological child, she also now is the foster mother to two Iraqi refugees.