India, March 3 -- Dr Aditya Choregaonkar, 35, had another name in another life. He was called 'Sunny' then, but he remembers little else about that time. "There was a forest near my home," says Choregaonkar. Tacking a third memory to the other two, he recalls, "I spent two days at a policeman's house."

If his lines appear rehearsed, it's because Choregaonkar has been going over them for the last three decades, in the hope that they will shake loose a few more clues. A grants manager with a Bengaluru-based non-profit that works to enhance primary education in rural government schools, Choregaonkar was only four when he was rescued from the streets of Mumbai by a policeman, in 1994.

He has been trying to trace his parents for several year...