Skip to main content

Have you seen me?



Not a chance.  I mean honestly the picture that these PSA cards show is not at all like the person that finally is discovered. In most cases they wander back home or are simply gone for a reason and not wanting to come back.  Foul play is also admittedly a portion of the missing folk but it is sheer optimism when someone says to look for a face that is grainy on bad quality paper and put out in third class mail.

In India there was a similar effort that was handled through the state owned television channel.  There was only one channel so you could be rudely interrupted on the state's choosing.  Between the evening prime time news and an action soap opera there was for example a local language announcement episode that read - Aapan Yanna Pahilat Kaa?  Translation - Have you seen any of these?

These happened to be a collection of beings that had ostensibly disappeared.  The interested families and local police were seeking the public's help in finding them.  When this outreach began on TV most families in the neighborhood had black and white TV sets at home.  Which encouraged the finders to present B&W photos of their loved ones.  And they were displayed along with a standard template read out by the TV anchor.  Mind you this anchor was like today's Bartiromo or any CNBC candy.  All designed to attract the largest viewership (did I say it was the only channel) and so as incongruous as it might look this lipstick painted lady took on a sombre look and went to read the following -  most descriptions also were largely similar -

Ganesh Mhatre - 5' 4" age 44,
Wheat complexion ('Gahu varniya' in local lingo - which always begged the question - why call that out?) in a sea of wheat mind you.  If there was another grain to compare I would have looked but c'mon - a grain of wheat in a sea of wheat?
Bandha (meaning build) medium (again most desi were not Olympians and as such possessed a medium bandha) - so not too descriptive

which really meant that if I randomly bumped into the 999,990 th person at the local railway station and happened to break bread with him or her and asked the question if their name happened to be that of the lord Ganesh and they answered in the affirmative... bingo - suddenly I had a possibility to do the impossible -maybe find the missing person.  Otherwise I was lost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Post a Comment
Read more