The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : A homecoming for Maria

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 15, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

A homecoming for Maria

Sangeeth Kurian

Photo: S. Mahinsha

At home: Maria with the inmates of the State Council for Child Welfare at Thycaud in the city on Friday. -

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indu was just three months old when her Swedish foster parents adopted her from the State Council for Child Welfare at Thycaud.

Back at the council on Friday after 28 years as Maria, a name given by her foster parents, in the company of her Swedish friend Martin Nordqvist, Ms. Maria says “my heart is touched” by the reception accorded to her by the maids who looked after her as an infant. “It was a pleasant surprise for me to meet them here. I never expected it,” said Ms. Maria who works as a pre-school teacher at Sundsvall, Sweden.

Coming from a land where people are relatively reserved in interacting with foreigners, Ms. Maria was surprised to see a “lot of smiling faces”. Her friend Mr. Nordqvist who works as a refrigerator technician too agrees. They will return to Sweden on December 24. Hailing from a cold country, Mr. Nordqvist, however, finds the State “too hot and humid and the traffic too chaotic”.

The couple also brought a lot of toys, clothes and other gifts for the children and inmates of the home from Sweden, which they will distribute on Saturday. According to the officials of the council, Maria came to the council’s crèche from a maternity hospital in Thrissur in 1979. “It is amazing to see that she preserved all the legal documents relating to adoption including her photograph as a three-month old at the crèche to this day,” said P. Krishnan, general secretary.

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