When David Kildendal Nielsen came back in search of his biological parents, nearly two decades after he was adopted and taken to Denmark, he decided that putting up posters in Washermanpet and Ennore areas would fetch him maximum traction in his quest. He chose these two areas because he believed his mother might be staying there.
People who are helping him in his mission in India helped put up the posters on the walls in the localities.
Originally named Shantha Kumar, he was born on January 25, 1978 to Dhanalakshmi and Kaliamurthy of Washermanpet. Mr. David and his brother Manuel Rajan were handed over to the Madras Christian Children’s home in Pallavaram in November 1978. “Eventually I was adopted and taken to Denmark in May 1979,” he said.
As years passed, his eagerness to meet his biological parents increased. In February 2013, he managed to obtain documents that showed he had a brother. “I came to know that Manuel Rajan was also adopted. I managed to trace him and met him in 2013,” he recalled.
He then took the help of Arun Dohle and Anjali Pawar from the NGO Against Child Trafficking. After reading articles about David, the wife and daughter of the pastor who ran the orphanage contacted them and gave them a picture of Dhanalakshmi. “This was the first time in nearly 40 years that I saw my mother,” he said. Their search took them to the house of one Govindarajan of Washermanpet. “He identified Dhanalakshmi and recalled that she had shifted to Ennore,” added Ms. Pawar.
