Announcements of Obituary
Recently a
friend of mine commented: Why do we have obituary announcements in meetings at
the beginning? Why not towards the end of meeting? That set me thinking - let
me share my thoughts here.
When a
member of a group / association passes away, his death is announced at the next
available opportunity, say a meeting or via newsletter. In meetings it is
almost always done as the first item, taking precedence over agenda. In a large
group many participants don’t have any idea as to who is dead, unless reference
is made with some re-callable details.
All members stand in silence in honour of the departed soul for thirty
seconds to three minutes. Many do not have any clue as to who is dead. This
activity is performed in a most perfunctory careless manner. If this activity
is a part of annual even then it is a shear formality. If the diseased person
is an important or a well known person then he gains entry into agenda proper.
Sometimes, the
nearest opportunity may come when the association’s periodical newsletter is
released. Here, the news of departed members is given at the end of the
publication or used as a filler at the bottom of some unimportant page. Usually
jokes are given similar weight. Many times a photo is included so that
infrequent participants may guess [which photo resembles the original?] who is
dead. Many times, very scanty info is
shared, as if to complete some formality.
If the association really cares about the loss of a dear member than
brief details such as who, when, where and how are supplied. And explain why or
how people remember him. This calls for some work, exertion and exploration.
I have seen photo of some neighborhood
slum dweller printed on a piece of A4 size paper pasted to some card board and
placed as a placard in street corners to announce the demise of some popular
figure. DOB, DOD and Name are minimum info shared. Such placards stay for day
and get washed off in rain or otherwise torn in traffic chaos.
Newspaper advertisements on
obituary are paid for. Mostly the
purpose is to inform the public who cannot otherwise be reached about last
rites or about tenth day events. Almost all of them give enough info to contact
the bereaving family members so that we may convey our condolences in time.
Sometimes Advertisements of anniversaries of dead persons get mixed up causing
confusion. Again seeing some (unknown) person’s photo some half a dozen times on
the same page is irksome. Can some publisher volunteer to bundle obituary notices
of same person into one large advert and make more money for value addition?
Newspaper obituary advertisements
or obituary notes printed by the paper as a news item are permanent and are searchable
online. One lady rang up from Mumbai and said: “ I am so & so. I have lost
contact with a childhood friend name so and so for several decades. All that I
know is she lives in Chennai, married to one Ki Va Jaganathan’s son. I
am going to Chennai shortly and would like to meet her. Can you help locate
her?” Thanks to an obituary advertisement of Ki Va Ja I could help them meet
and renew their friendship.
In Senior Citizens Forum,
Secunderabad where I am a member we have a song for the forum which runs thus:
The time to be happy is now
The place to be happy is here
And the way to be happy is to
make someone happy
And have a little heaven
right here!
The current practice is to
sing the song in unison by all members present towards the end of the meeting. Keeping
the content and import of the song I suggested: “Why not we sing the Forum song
in the beginning of our meetings instead of at the end”. That way we will remind
ourselves to value NOW – the present moment – and as well try to make someone
happy during the course of the meeting. Well, SCF didn’t accept the suggestion. This
brings us back to suggestion given in the start of this article. People are
reluctant and afraid of change and are happy to stick to status quo. Mental
security at stake!
