Obituary opulence

Well, a few things seem to have triggered this mega frenzy that I call Opulence in Obituary advertising in Chennai, namely - low cost of digital printing, high court order banning hoardings and the ruling government/party politics. Thanks to all this, I now know the enormous contributions made by one Mr. Dasarathan, party functionary of the ruling party, the everlasting heroics of Dhanu, a local socially challenged individual, and the loving sons of Mrs. Muniyamma. How do I know them? Well, everyday I see all these people brought to life by colorfully printed digital obituary ads standing on causaurina legs :) Each of these posters are mini resumes, like the ones by Raja Raja Chozha in the Thanjavur temple. It talks about the legendary social contributions that these people made and also enumerates the photos of people who are ever grateful for these contributions. The template of these ads are well designed. Each banner has a section with a significant portion dedicated to the party or gang that the person is affiliated. It has a section that has a poetry (oh good, I hate to insult the word poetry), depicted in a scroll and the bottom half dedicated to well wishers. It is mandatory that all these well wishers have a photo with a cell phone in their ears :) All these ads are strategically erected in the directions of flowing traffic to attract maximum attention. Most of these public obituary ads are in politically well endowed, socially less sophisticated neighbourhoods.

Ok, now before you dismiss this as a "bottom of the pyramid" phenomenon, I would like to draw your attention to the annals of "The Hindu" newspaper. This is the realm of pseudo sophisticated people like me and my family :) Wonder if you studied the obituary section carefully. Again, there is a neat pattern of pompous self promotion of the dead and the soon-to-be-dead. So, what is the pattern? Every obituary ad will essentially contain 3 neat sections. First the photo. The second section right below the photo will contain the name of the person, the office he worked in, the position, the degrees, the certifications, the medals, the achievements, and if possible bank balance and account numbers :) For rama's sake, the dude is dead and all these don't matter. All I need to know is the name and work place at best. Does it matter if he was post master general (retd.), BTW you cannot miss the retired part, lest the people think that the person died in harness :) You need to mention which country the person did his M.S. If the person has any long lost connection with the US, it is a must :) So, that is about the dead person. The section on not-yet-dead people is more interesting. So, the list starts with the name of the person, relation with the dead person, his/her academic qualifications, his/her work experience profile,his/her location (very very important if they are anyway outside India, even if its Papua New Guinea, please mention it). Each obituary ad is a mini resume for the family of the dead :)

Adi Shankara said," Maa kuru dhana jana yauvana garvam" - Don't be proud of your wealth, people or youth as the Lord can take it away anytime. The obituary opulence defies all logic :) but then, that is why the cut-off is so low in Kali Yuga :)