Lost And Found

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.