It sounds like something out of a movie or a cheesy Google commercial, if they ran commercials for Google Earth. From Yahoo! News, the story of a boy from India who found his family after 25 years using Google Earth:

Saroo Brierley was only 5 when a train zoomed him hundreds of miles from home. It took 25 years and a technological revolution for him to get back

An Indian man separated from his family for 25 years has defied the odds by tracking them down — using little more than a vague recollection of his childhood and some help from Google Earth’s mapping technology.

In short, when he was 5 years old in 1987, he and his brother boarded the wrong train, thinking they were going home. They fell asleep on the train, and when they woke up, they were on the wrong side of the country, with no money. Also, he was only 5.

A tragic saga ensued. His brother died, and he was eventually declared a lost child and adopted by a family who took him to Tasmania. Tasmania is very, very far away from India.

Finally, using Google Earth and vague memories of childhood, he began searching the area around the train station until he found his hometown, Ganesh Talai. Using Facebook, he corresponded with some people from the town, and went to India and pounded pavement until he found them.

He says he plans on making a movie about the experience. I’d watch it.

Photo credit: Tasmania.A2005320.2355.250m by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC[see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons.