Lost & Found – R.I.P. Human Drama
I miss getting lost.No seriously, back in the day, getting lost was an emotion. It was a plot twist. It was the reason for Bollywood’s existence. Today? It’s just…a GPS glitch.
You see, man is supposed to be a social animal. We were wired to mingle, bicker, play, fall in love, lose people and find them again - preferably with melodrama, rain, and background score. But no. Technology is killing it.
Socializing is now reduced to likes and comments on a post with a dog filter. Playing games means sitting in front of a console and yelling “camp the base!” at someone in Estonia. Even dating is a virtual tête-à-tête with someone who might be a fridge in disguise - or worse, a bot masquerading as Lolita_69.
Even our storytelling has suffered. Remember Bollywood’s golden age of "Lost & Found"? That magical plot device where a simple earthquake or mela separated families like socks in a washing machine - only for fate to reunite them decades later with matching birthmarks and theme songs?
Take Waqt (1965) - a disaster separates a happy family. No Google Maps. No Aadhar card. Just destiny, drama, and a whole lot of melodious pining.
Amar, Akbar, Anthony... and Alexa
Or Yaadon Ki Baaraat, where a tragedy tears apart brothers, but a childhood song knits them back together years later. Or Amar Akbar Anthony, where three brothers are adopted by families of different religions - Hindu, Muslim, Christian - and then reunited in a divine moment of joint blood transfusion. Yes, they simultaneously donate blood to their mother like the tributaries of the Ganga merging into one biological miracle. Science weeps. Bollywood rejoices.
In Parvarish, a police officer’s son and a dacoit’s son are interchanged at birth - growing up on opposite sides of the law. Classic The Departed meets Butch Cassidy, if you like your metaphors spicy.
But today? You can’t even misplace a kid in a fair without someone scanning his forehead. Literally.
Kho Gaye QR Mein: Mela 2.0
Take the recently concluded Mahakumbh. Now THAT was the dream setting for a classic "Mele mein kho gaya tha" story. A writer’s paradise. Lost children, teary mothers, impromptu songs, maybe even a holy cow or two nudging a character toward enlightenment.
But no. Enter Techno Babu with his QR-coded kala teeka.
Yes, Fevicol (Pidilite Industries) , in its infinite wisdom (and adhesive strength), launched the Teeka ID -a traditional black dot on the forehead, only with a twist. Embedded inside it? A QR code. So if your kid wandered off, a simple scan gave you all his details - name, address, favorite cartoon, probably even his lunchbox contents.
No suspense. No "Bachha kahaan gaya?" wailing. Just a beep and poof - child located. Drama canceled. Plot lost.
It’s like someone took your DDLJ moment and replaced it with a push notification: “Simran has been auto-rescued. Please proceed to Gate No. 3.”
So here lies the lost art of getting lost. Hijacked by GPS, murdered by QR codes, and buried under real-time updates.
I say bring back the chaos. Let us drift. Let destiny do its thing. Let us meet long-lost siblings through dramatic songs in shady bars. Let teekas be just teekas and not Google Maps in disguise.
Because sometimes, being found is only special…if you were truly lost.
