Chandigarh, November 7
Even when Johanna Lindberg (Aarti), a Swedish national, celebrated her 24th birthday yesterday, her earnest desire to see a picture of her biological mother remains unfulfilled.

Her mother had left her in a Sector 19 temple here in December, 1981. Subsequently, a Swedish couple who took her to Sweden adopted her.

In 2003, she, accompanied by her parents, came to India. She visited all places where she had spent the first few years of her life, including the temple, the Sector 16 General Hospital here and a Haryana child care centre in Panchkula district where she stayed till her adoption.

She spent a day at the Sector 19 temple but no one could help her meet her mother.

‘‘I have tried to find her. A couple of years ago, I came to Chandigarh and visited the temple where she had left me in a corner. I was hoping that she might turn up there and meet me. But I was not lucky enough.

‘‘I have no regrets as I have a very good life in Sweden. I am very happy with my parents and my brother. My biggest wish to see a picture of her has, however, yet to come true. I am not sad as I can understand how difficult it is to have a baby if you are young and may be single there (in India) or if you already have more than one girl child in the family or something just like this," wrote Johanna in an email to The Tribune yesterday.

‘‘I know The Tribune can help me in tracing my mother. It was The Tribune which carried a news report in December, 1981, when I was left in the temple and again in 2003, your newspaper tried to help me.

‘‘I do not want to cause any problems in her professional or social life. But my only wish is if I could know her or just see her picture or may be talk to her on the phone once," says Johanna, now a young professional working in Stockholm.

Johanna says that she will again visit Chandigarh and other parts of India in a couple of years’ time. "I will consider myself lucky if I am able to at least see her or her picture. I do not want to know why she left me in the temple. All I can say is that her intentions were good. She wanted me to survive and here I am, very happy, got excellent parents and a loving brother. I am well-settled, all by myself and have no intention to disturb or disrupt anybody's life or get upset myself. It is just a wish if I could see how she looked like," says Johanna.

Johanna, who does not understand Hindi or any other Indian language, says that sometimes people in Sweden mistake her for an Asian, or an Indian, and try to speak to her in Hindi or Urdu.

‘‘They get disappointed because I do not know either of the languages,’’ she admits. ‘‘I am lucky to have found such wonderful parents and a brother," she adds, hoping that someone will come forward some day to let her know about her biological parents.