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Separated by Partition, two old friends are reunited by their grandchildren... with a little help from Google. The touching new advertisement by the search engine giant will make even your cold icy heart melt.
By setting their advertisement around the theme of old friends across the borders reuniting after 60 years, Google India may just have hit the ball out of the stadium.
The search engine giant's commercial has gone viral since it was first posted on YouTube and within a day has garnered more than three lakh views.
(In case you haven't watched the film yet, click here!)
The advertisement opens to a scene in a restaurant in Delhi where an elderly man, Baldev recounts his childhood days to his granddaughter.
Baldev tells her about his best friend Yusuf from Lahore and of the simple times, the kite-flying sessions, the stealing of jhajariyas, a local sweet from a sweetmeat shop near an old gate in Lahore, now in Pakistan.
And Partition in 1947 separates the two friends -- Baldev comes to India while Yusuf stays back in Lahore.
Moved by the story, his granddaughter decides to step in and begins looking for landmarks that the old man spoke of.
Taking cue from snippets of conversation, the granddaughter follows the trail that leads her to the telephone number of a sweets shop in Lahore, the very city her grandfather would speak of.
As it happens, the shop indeed belongs to his old friend, Yusuf, to whom she reveals her identity.
What happens next? Please click NEXT to read more and watch the film...
Before long, Yusuf is airborne, with a little help from his grandson (and Google of course) and lands up at the doorstep of his old friend in Delhi to wish him on his birthday.
The film ends on a touching note with the two old men sitting gleefully on the ground soaking in the heavy downpour, having been reunited after 66 long years.
Interestingly, the story has its own real-life parallel in the incredible tale of Saroo Brierley who was separated from his family when he fell asleep in a train that took him miles away from his home.
Over 25 years later, relying on nothing but the disjointed memories of when he was five and endless hours of Internet searches, Brierley was finally able to retrace his steps and locate his biological family.
He has documented this incredible story in his book, A long way home. (Read more about it here).