Amritsar, October 18
Twentytwo-year-old Laura Schmid has come to Amritsar along with her parents and fiancé. No, she is not one of the foreign tourists visiting the holy city. She has come back to find answers to some questions that have been haunting her since her childhood. Laura is here in search of her biological parents.

Narrating Laura’s journey from her childhood to teens to The Tribune here today, her non-biological father Rene Schmid said: “Laura was left by her aunt at the Missionaries of Charity in Amritsar when she was five-year-old. After a few months, she was shifted to New Delhi. In 1996, when my wife Hilla visited India as a tourist, one of her acquaintances told her about Laura and we decided to adopt her.”

Rene and Hilla already had three sons when they adopted Laura on May 20, 1996. “We have a big heart for a big family,” says Hilla when asked what prompted them to adopt her. “We thought that she will get a family as well as proper education if we adopt her,” said Rene.

According to them, Laura knew everything right from the beginning as she was old enough to understand these things. “I would often tell her that your three brothers have come from stomach but you have come from my heart,” said an emotional Hilla.

On Laura’s childhood memories that may help her in her search for her biological parents, the couple said: “She recollects that she belonged to a Hindu family and they lived near railway tracks in Amritsar. Her father was a rickshaw-puller while her mother died in her early childhood. Later, her aunt kept her at her home and one day she reportedly left her at the Missionaries of Charity. She only remembers the name of her aunt’s kids - Pooja, Deepu, Babu and Sapna. She also recounts that one day when her father came looking for her at her aunt's house, her (aunt's) kids gagged her (Laura) and did not let her speak.”

Laura has now completed her school education and works in a hotel. She has got engaged and plans to get married over the next couple of years.

Then after spending 14 years in Switzerland, what brings her back to India? Laura, who could not speak English, said she only wanted to meet her father once. Apart from it, she would also like to know as to why she was left at the orphanage when her father was alive.

After coming to Amritsar, she went to the address mentioned in the orphanage’s record, but it was wrong. “I also drove around the city to trace my house, but it has been so many years and the place has changed a lot,” she said.

Laura will remain in the holy city for another week.

Meanwhile, in their noble gesture, the Swiss couple has inadvertently given a strong message today to the people in Punjab where female foeticide is rampant, as they adopted a girl child despite having three sons. Laura is not their only adopted child. They later adopted another kid from New Delhi, a boy whom they named Lucas, who is now living with them in Switzerland.