Saroo Brierley

I tell my friends that 'you don't know how lucky you are to be in Tasmania, because when you go away internationally, you get to see it in its glory.'

Each time I go away internationally or even to the mainland, I always love coming back to Tasmania.

I don't have a birth certificate.

I do get recognised, but not as much as someone like Dev Patel or Nicole Kidman.

I don't really have a worldview.

I've moved to Australia, to amazing parents who gave me unconditional love, to being educated and submerged in an amazing country and society.

We were a sport-oriented family. Because I was athletic, I made friends easily.

Why make life so dull when you can make it exciting and meet amazing people and go to countries and see things? You make life the way you want it to be. A lot of people don't realize that at the end of the day, the ultimate control of what you do and your destiny, it lies in the way you want to direct yourself.

For a couple that wants to have a child, there's the option of IVF, but then have a look at adoption as well.

I don't get asked this much - 'Would you ever wanna see your father again?' And the answer there is that I would like to see him again.

I'm still so grounded and so regimented, too. I've developed myself for such a long time - my characteristics and who I am - that if I try to change myself, my origins will pull me back.

Follow your own path.

At the end of the day, I think people just need to start listening to their hearts and their gut feelings and their dreams, because that's what I did.

My past was always there. And I always understood that I was adopted. It wasn't like a massive issue to me. But identity was an issue. I knew that I was Indian, but I didn't really know much about myself, really. I mean, I really disassociated myself from what happened in the past to present. But, it was affecting in regards to identity.

I'm a pretty laid-back kind of person.

Indians in general are sort of thick-skinned and hard to be moved.

A lot of people forget that anything is accomplishable if you embrace technology.

Being involved in sports and having a very sport orientated family just helped the transition extremely well. I guess, in a way, your school colleagues saw you out and about, and you were part of the team you were getting into the Australian way, learning the language. The transition was extremely smooth.

Coming to Australia, it was just really magical for me. It just had the wow factor of a different sort of place and, more so, just being with a family that wanted to love me and to have me, because I knew back then, before coming to Australia, there was no way of getting back home or finding my real family.

I'm fairly sort of a laid-back and optimistic guy full of effervescence and vitality.