His new parents gave him a new name — Thomas Shamba. They discarded the one he came with — Johnson. But Thomas Shamba prefers to call himself Sham. 23-year-old Sham lives in France. He has sought help from a Facebook group to trace his family in Bengaluru as reported by the Bangalore Mirror .
Shamba was adopted by a French couple from an orphanage in Bengaluru when he was just two years old. At the age of five, he was told by his adoptive parents that he was an adopted child. Since then, he has been thinking about his biological family.
As per official records, Sham was adopted on January 31, 1994, from St. Joseph’s Babies’ Home, Promenade Road, Bangalore. His mother died when he was just two and half months. His father who was a daily wager earner may have found it difficult to look after him. His family spoke Tamil. However, the only language that Sham now speaks is French.
One of the members of the Bangalore Travellers group has discovered that the orphanage from where he was adopted shut down in 2002. The nun in-charge also passed away. Nevertheless, Sham remains motivated. He hopes to visit Bengaluru one day to find his family.