“We were a big family by then, but all of us felt there was space for more children,” Barry said. And that was how they came to Chennai in 1996 and finally filed an application for adoption.

By mid-1997, MASOS, an adoption agency in Chennai, said the Rollings could adopt a three-year-old boy and his two-year-old sister. The children, the couple was told, were put up for adoption five months earlier, in October 1996, as their ‘terminally ill parents’ were unable to take care of them. But that was all they knew of the children’s parents. “They told us the children were born in Vaniyambadi, a 4-hour drive from Chennai, and that they were brought to the agency for adoption by an agent, who was approached by the children’s parents, Sunama and Imam,” said Julia.

In August 1998, after the paperwork and formalities, Julia finally flew home with Akil and Sabila. But the doubts lingered—of the children’s biological parents and whether they were alive—and the Rollings vowed to find out.

Twist in the tale

Despite several trips to Chennai, the Rollings knew nothing more about Akil and Sabila—till eight years later, in March 2006, when they came across the innocuous-looking internet report on an adoption racket in Chennai.

The report set off a storm in Julia’s mind. Were Akil and Sabila put up for adoption with their parents’ permission, like the adoption agency claimed? And if they weren’t, would they lose their children now? Julia and Barry decided to set these doubts to rest. They had just come back from a trip to India but were now preparing to go back.

... contd.