Lost
And Found
I was feeling fortunate that Sunday.
It was hot and humid out there, I was reclining on sofa, most importantly
I had TV remote with me. That is a much coveted gadget, difficult to seize for
most of the time it is under control of either younger one or elder one. The
younger daughter frame by frame thrusts upon us Chhota Bheem, Doraemon and the
elder one gives no freedom from Zalak Dikhla ja.. or some kind of awards
programmes with lot of non sense from anchors, less awards, more dance
performances and even more advertisements. I find it really hard to digest all
the rubbish of ridiculous questions asked to participants, well scripted flood
of emotions, over reaction of participants to favourable or adverse remarks,
sensational but fabricated drama among panel of judges… all to create
ultimately the hype around the show to an extent that the nice performance is
overshadowed by this drama. The remote that day was with me. I could maneuver
the way I want. Just started surfing the channels.
I was on a Hindi
movie channel. It was an old movie. I must have missed the initial part. It was
dark. The train was leaving the station. The family of four was in. It seemed
that two kids and parents were going to some metro (can it be any other than
Mumbai then). They looked from a poor family must have been going to find
fortune in Mumbai. The train took momentum. The kids lost in sleep and parents
lost in uncertain future. I was about to change the channel, my cell phone
rang. A close friend there on the other side. We exchanged some phone number
and ‘mouth sweeteners’. The call ended, I turned to remote to change the
channel. While I was on phone, the train had met with an accident. All plunge
into darkness. The parents and kids get separated, parents somehow find one but
other is lost. I just burst into laughter for that was something I was
predicting before I got a call.
Writing the
next part is easy for me. One will be police other will be thug, one brilliant
student , other dreaded criminal, they come across after 20 years, one of the
parents dead most probably father. Lot of animosity between the duo, real
villain is different, a common enemy, some photo or a thing becomes catalyst,
brothers meet, tears roll on and off the screen. A predictable formula of
Bollywood. 30% freedom of modification you can have 30 movies produced. Train
journey, village festival, flood all have been used by this formula. Overused
the formula is dead for now. Train accidents, floods all take a huge toll on
humanity. As compared to lost and found formula there are few attempts to
explore the human cost of such tragedies. Thousands suffer in such incidents,
everbody has a story but our movies have failed to present the human cost,
inhuman angle, trauma, bravehearts, fightback by the victims. At the most the
incident is used to initiate a love story. Given the frequency of occurrence
there should have been good movies depicting these emotions, impact on life of
an individual, and society.
The lost
and found formula have no takers today. Tracing an individual is a bit easy as
compared to 30-40 years ago. The formula has lost its ground but not train
accidents, unfortunately they occur frequently. The formula sometimes is
modified to Kidnapping, but with some hits it has also lost its sheen. The
predictable formula is now funnily used to refer to those leaders who are seen
only during election, they are lost after the election but are traced again
during next election. The movie industry lost the formula but we continue to
lose many kids, people. When TV came and was not for 24 hours there used to be
public notice regarding the missing persons. With fight for TRP and no respite
from advertisement there is no slot for missing persons. At least we have fast
communication, better human connectivity, alert media if properly used, the
tragedy can be averted provided you have better connections, strong clout and…
yes even stronger line of fate.
My cousin lives in UK.
Almost settled there she has two lovely kids. Elder Owee is a sweet girl just
four and half years old. Smart, fits in chubby chicks …. category. She is
intelligent and in day to day life routinely displays it. My cousin's some
relatives went to UK, stayed for couple of days. One day they planned to visit
a mall. Owee went with relatives and my cousin decided to join later. The mall
was burst into crowd. They also got involved in shopping. Owee was also
enjoying. After an hour my cousin went to join them. When she caught them in
the mall she realized Owee was not there. She separated from them in the crowd,
they unmindful of it went ahead. All were panicked. The search began. Just then
there was in air an announcement regarding Owee that she was at the reception
counter.
Owee displayed brilliant
stuff. When she realized that she was on her own, she fortunately saw mother of
her friend, she went to her and said “I am lost”. That lady immediately put her
at reception counter and announcement went in air. All rushed and found her
cool and calm, waiting for the parents. She indeed displayed great character
and presence of mind at such a tender age. That was great. When I came to know
about this incident a thought came to me as what would have happened in India
that too in a small city. First of all the child after realizing that it is
lost would burst into wild cry. People would them go to it and questioning
would begin. The solution if fails to come by easily, Police would come,
sometimes complicating the matter. The trouble to parents would be nightmarish
and child would be in great trauma.
I don’t know if she was educated
in the school about such emergency and how to respond. But one thing for sure
in her subconscious mind she had faith in the system there, the reason she did
not panic. I am sure she indeed would have handled that inspite of it but not
many can respond this way. If only child knows that there is system in place,
knows where to go, what number to dial in case of emergency the response would
be without panic. And when such system is effective, schools can also educate
children how to handle such situations. Our society, administration and schools
can collectively make a difference. The problem is our indifference to have a
social and administrative system in place. Most are unwilling to accept that it
can happen to anybody. Nobody desires but may have to face it. No doubt we
don’t have an effective system in place but still schools can play decisive
role. Along with tables and alphabets if they teach them how to handle
emergency, they will be smarter in adverse situations.
Lost and found formula is obsolete in movies but being
lost in crowded place is reality. Movies make forgettable entertainment but real
life trauma is unforgettable. There should be no place for lost and found
formula in real life, at the most lost and immediately found. It is possible
only if we as a society realize human cost and create a system for this.
