Dutch Olympian Seeks Indian Biological Parents After 32 Years

A Dutch Olympic skater born in India, Anice Das, has traveled all the way to the country on a quest to not only to look for her biological parents, but also connect with Mumbai, the city she was born in.

“It is something we had to do. Our parents in Netherlands wanted us to do this when we reached the right age to do it on our own. We finally decided that this would be the two of us with a dear friend from Netherlands (also adopted from Mumbai) who knows our city well,” said Das, PTI reported.  Das represented the Netherlands in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Das and her twin sister have made the journey to India after 32 years. The sisters were only eight months old when they were adopted by a Dutch couple. The adoptive parents raised them “like any proud parent would,” Das was quoted as saying in the report. Although she has been in India for a week, she has not had much luck in finding the identity of her parents.

“To be honest, it is emotionally overwhelming. I had first thought about coming to India a couple of years ago but my sister got pregnant and then I got busy with my preparation for the Winter Olympics. So, now was the time and we were ready for it,” Das said, adding that until now she has not been able to get much information from hospitals and orphanages. “I see it will take some time to put the dots together,” she said, the Times of India reported.

Das emphasized that she wants to trace both biological parents, and not just her biological mother, in India. “I don’t understand why I am always asked about my mother. It is about finding my biological parents. I am in this till the end,” Das said, according to PTI.

Das, which is an Indian surname, is also a common Dutch last name. “The story about our last name Das is easy,” the sportsperson had told PTI in an earlier interview. “Our father is called Karel Herman Das and he married our mother, Ria Domburg (now Ria Das Domburg).”

The sisters knew very little about India before coming to the country. Das had only heard about India from friends who visited the country, had watched some Hindi movies and eaten Indian food. “I will never forget the first smell of India when we landed, it was like sweet smell in the air. We really liked it,” Das was quoted as saying by TOI.

After reading about her life story, a top Indian film production house has reached out to Das for a potential biopic, the PTI report said. If things head in the right direction, the hunt for her parents could get easy. Das will soon go back to the Netherlands, and will need to assess how to continue searching for her biological parents.

“It is busy but there is so much color here. The people here look more like us than in Holland, which is funny but understandable. The people have been really friendly so far and not for once I have felt uncomfortable. I will be back until I find them. Financially, I have to figure things out,” she was quoted as saying by the news agency.