Adopted out

As an adoptee born to a Parsi mother in Bombay 41 years ago, I read with interest your articles on adoption. I am interested in knowing what the Parsi community thinks and feels about Parsi children given for adoption — whether I would be welcomed inside a fire temple, for example, and how friendly the response to me might be. I came to Bombay last summer but felt too much of an imposter to try and enter an agiary. It would be interesting to see an article on this subject from Parsi children who have been adopted out of the community.

I am interested too in tracing my mother and family. If there is any help readers could provide, or useful hints on how to go about this within the Parsi community, I would be most grateful. Unfortunately, I do not have much information about my parents. All I know is that my mother was a Parsi, 38 years old, and married at the time of my birth. I was born at St Catherine’s Home, Andheri, Bombay on July 14, 1966. My mother stayed there for three months before my birth, and then for five months after, when she breastfed me. All this information is relatively new to me — I eventually obtained it when I returned to the home last summer.

I am still trying to obtain my mother’s name from the records kept by the Catholic nuns at the home, but they are ignoring my attempts.

However, in the court records which I got pertaining to my adoption, it is stated that my mother was young and unmarried and had left after three weeks with "a verbal consent to adoption.”

It is my dearest wish to meet my mother, or other family members, to reconnect with my roots and to let her know I am okay and learn how it really was for her.

If any reader could provide me with suitable information I would be most grateful. I have previously resisted taking this approach, since I wished to be discreet for my mother’s sake, but the situation with the nuns not allowing me to know my name has led me to this point. I may be contacted via e-mail at andheriannie @yahoo.co.uk

ANNIE SMITH

Leeds, UK