Obituary Advertisements in Deccan Chronicle

 

Obituary Advertisements in Deccan Chronicle

 It would be interesting to go through obituary advertisements as long as you are not figuring there. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev says: “Whoever you meet, speak to them like it is the last time you may have that opportunity. It will transform your life.” Who knows when my turn would come to appear in these columns?

 I first look through all the photos to see if anyone I know is not there anymore. I might use the info to send a condolence message or inform my friends about it. I feel a sigh of relief if have no such follow up work to do.

 

I often find that photographs are of odd sizes, leaving a lot of white space around. DC offers standard size for obit Ads, while advertisers use images of odd sizes, not optimized it for the size of the column. When some popular person dies, many individuals place Ads for the same dead person forcing you peer at same photo many times. I made a suggestion to Deccan Chronicle to consolidate all such Ads into one big single Ad benefiting all concerned. This appeal for respecting the dead, has not made any headway.

 

The photographs in obituary Ads compete in quality only with photos in passport or Aadhar. The photos themselves tell a lot – just look at the spects, uniform, mush, drooping eyes, mouth etc. Some look so young that makes it mandatory to check DOB and DOD.  I cannot find any reason for this laxity, except that family members of the dead person may be hard up for time or are too confused. Most relatives might have been predicting the D-day to be far off but were caught unawares.

 

On the contents, I may comment that more Christians than others use it best. By studying the text, one may learn different practices of various communities. Anniversary and remembrance Ads are intriguing – how long should one be remembered?  Sometimes birthday Ads show up along with Obit Ads creating confusion.   

 

The number of people joining to condole the death is amazing. It is one thing to help the reader know WHO is dead but it is another thing to let us know all his relatives. In order to maximise space utilization, some people stuff the entry with so much text that even reading TOI matrimonial Classified Ad on a Sunday will be much easier.

 

I wonder what comments YOU might be having when that ‘once-in-a- lifetime-event’ in my case is advertised!