Carrying a small leaflet with a black-and-white childhood photo and a recent picture, Harold David Rajib is walking through the streets of Cumilla in search of his biological parents. The leaflet bears the captions "Me as a child" and "Me now." Dressed in a lungi and a black t-shirt, Rajib, despite his foreign appearance, is rooted in Bangladesh by his origins.

Rajib Uddin, as he is known informally, is a Dutch citizen whose passport and current identity documents list him as Harold David Rajib. He was adopted and taken to the Netherlands shortly after his birth. Although he grew up in a loving adoptive family, the desire to meet his biological parents brought him back to Bangladesh.

Leaflet with childhood photo

The leaflet Rajib is distributing features his childhood black-and-white photo alongside a recent one, with the captions "Me as a child" and "Me now." He is handing these out to pedestrians in various areas of Cumilla, hoping someone might have information about his parents or family members.

A parallel search in Cox's Bazar

In a similar case, 45-year-old Selina Gomes is searching for her parents in Chakoria, Cox's Bazar. Armed with a childhood photo and an old passport, she arrived in Bangladesh from the Netherlands on October 28. Born in Malumghat under Dulahazara union in Chakoria, Selina was adopted by a Dutch family when she was just a year and a half old. She has been visiting Malumghat, Dulahazara, and Khutakhali unions in search of her relatives.

The pull of roots

Both Rajib and Selina, raised in adoptive families abroad, have returned to Bangladesh driven by the longing to find their biological parents. Their only clues are childhood photographs and stories of their early years heard from others. With these scant resources, they are tirelessly traversing different areas of Bangladesh in hopes of reuniting with their families.