Day begins with obituary ad


If you asked rural readers, many would confess that they started reading the morning’s newspaper with the obituary column. In a place like Galgali ( My moms village ) this has a simple reason. You could attend the funeral or pay condolences and then have your bath, as my aunt used to claim, thus saving time, effort and water at one shot.

The obituary also makes interesting reading. You can keep track of families, people and where they have settled through these columns. My uncle has Bangalore connections from childhood and he has been able to track many classmates, teachers, his father’s colleagues, and other acquaintances through these columns.

The practice of placing obituaries in the newspaper is a very British custom. The ruling monarch’s appointments, announcements and honours bestowed—including appointments of merchants as suppliers—were printed in the national nespaers. Then came the engagements, marriages, births and finally the death announcements of the crème de la crème. This custom was adopted in India along with colonisation. Strangely, it is only the Times of India Mumbai that still publishes announcements of birth, engagements and weddings along with obituaries. All other publications in the country only prefer deaths.

The announcement of death and funerals that are current is understandable. However years after somebody’s death—anniversaries, birth, death etc.—are published with huge photos. Does it have any relevance I ask myself. However, the custom of announcing eye donors after death is indeed a laudable one as it can be a motivation for others to do so.

Sometimes a cheerful photo is published leading one to exclaim, “Achacho! Young fellow to have passed away!” Then one is rudely awakened to the small script underneath that the person is being welcomed, congratulated, whatever from abroad or for having received a degree or taken part in a conference.

In Mumbai again there are reams and reams of newspaper space devoted to Thanksgiving to a favourite deity. That too makes one wonder whether the all-powerful media delivers newspapers first thing in the morning to the Gods too! Messages to the departed from loving offspring, friends and others are also part of obituaries and maybe the departed are reading their obituaries somewhere, sometime.

I know some people who have prepared their obituaries when they are alive as they do not trust their families to do it right. Family feuds too are aired in public with separate announcements for one parent from different factions. Likewise photos of the departed are sometimes unrecognizable that makes you ask the main mourner, “The person who died, is it you are your brother?”

There is a separate class of people who mourn the death of their pets (and anniversaries) and announcements are put in with suitable photos. Newspapers wait with obituaries for slipping into the day’s current news when a famous personality is ill or dying. They also have to keep fillers for that space in case the event is postponed.

Finally, if you are keeping track of the death announcements, often you can find errata—date, time, place and even the name being published. Recently the death of a member of a famous old age home was published giving the departed person the name of the Home! It necessitated another ad published with apologies and the real name of the inmate a few days later.

Like picking an auspicious time to deliver a child through C section, soon there may be people who want to meet their maker according to newspaper deadlines. So next time you read an obituary remember that it has a story behind it!