Mangalore (Karnataka): As an Indian child adopted and raised in Germany, Marie Chaya Scoop, was always curious about her origins and the whereabouts of her birth mother.
It was in 1981 that Scoop was adopted from an orphanage in Karnataka's Mangalore by a German couple as a six-year-old.
Despite having a home, a family and a world full of opportunities — the only thing missing was a sense of belonging.
Her adoptive parents were always open about her background, which brought her to India in the year 2000, and, so began Scoop's quest to find her biological mother.
With nothing, but a black and white picture of her mother and some faint memories, 43-year-old Scoop has been travelling the length and breadth of Karnataka, approaching lawyers, police and the orphanage she was adopted from to trace her roots, with little success so far.
"In my heart I always longed fro my biological mother and I always shared a very strong bond with her. Since 2000, I have been coming to India and I make sure that I come here (India) at least once in a year. I approached a lawyer in Bangalore because the place I was adapted from was refusing to cooperate and provide me with details of my biological parents. I got a High Court order in 2009, which asked the police to investigate, because it is a human right to know your roots, your place of birth and the whereabouts of your mother, " said Scoop.
Narrating her journey further, Scoop said, "In 2016, I came to Mangalore as some local people infromed me that they could help me trace my relatives who are staying in Mangalore. In 2018, a woman from Mangalore claimed to have contact with my mother."
This time around, her search for her mother brought her to Raichur district in Karnataka, after she received a tip-off on her mother.
"My mother was born in 1943 in Mangalore. A person who claims to have known my mother told me that she had shifted to Raichur, which is why I have came here, " said Scoop while holding her mother's picture in her hands.
Scoop is one of thousands of Indian children who were given away during rising numbers of inter-country adoptions in the 1970's when there was no law in India to regulate this.
Studies show that India was among the top five countries sending children to the United States between 1978 and 1995, but stories of corruption stirred considerable controversies.
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It was not until a Supreme Court judgment in 1984 that private adoptions were banned and the Indian government started to monitor and regulate adoptions.
