Dead man gets birthday greetings - year later

How many of your facebook friends are real friends? Facebook friends of an Indian journalist who died almost a year ago continue posting birthday greetings. Many of his close facebook fans are still not aware of his sad demise.

Sunil K Poolani, a Mumbai-based journalist and author, died in July 2011. “I  knew him as an active journalist, author and facebook addict.

He had more than 2,000 friends from around the world on his facebook friends' list. It is strange that many people on the list don’t know that he is dead. They continue to post Happy Birthday greetings on his wall. It is very sad and unfair,” said a journalist friend of Sunil.

He died last July due to cardiac arrest. He would have been 42 years today, if he was alive. His facebook profile says he still lives in Mumbai, works at a Mumbai-based publishing house and “Today is his birthday”

Sunil Poolani has 2,019 friends on facebook and about 25 of his “friends” have adorned his wall with greetings such as 'Happy Happy Birthday', 'Many Many Happy Returns of the Day', 'Happy Birthday Sunil', 'Be Well', 'Hi Sunil', 'Long Time', 'How Are You Doing', Have a Good Birthday!' 'Here is wishing you a  Very Happy Birthday Sunil', and a 'fabulous Years ahead'...

Shalini Singh, another friend wrote: 'Happy Birthday Sunil, Wish you Health and Happiness'.

Sunil K Poolani, was a known journalist for 14 years, he  worked with 'The Sunday Observer'.

Later he became the  publisher and managing editor of Frog Books, a Mumbai-based publishing house, launched in March 2003. 

Facebook still send “friends suggestions” to reconnect to the dead man!  Social networking sites continue to struggle with the users death, as their privacy policy lacks in many respects.

"It is heart-breaking to know that many of his so-called virtual friends don't know that he is dead. I know him as an author and writer and as a facebook friend. Social networking friendship is just so hollow," Nisha S, a facebook friend of Sunil.

“This shows people are there around on facebook, but nobody cares and there are no real friends. The social media has taken the liberty to call everybody a friend, but they are not,” Sujatha, another facebook user.

“I was saddened to see a facebook pop-up message which listed him as one of the several people who are celebrating their birthday on Wednesday. I did not wish to greet a dead man, but when I opened his wall, I was surprised to see many people keep posting birthday greetings and long live wishes. This shows how far friends on facebook could be. Many of them don’t know that their close friend is dead?,” said Sudhakar, who has 150 mutual friends with the deceased facebook account owner.

“Some of his friends continue to tag him pictures and links. I don’t know whether they are doing it just mechanically, without thinking whether the person is alive or dead. Facebook relationship can be too deep, but too peripheral,” added another friend of Sunil.

“I was shocked to see such painful messages on his wall. After I wrote a status update saying Sunil has been dead for almost a year, his friends started reversing the messages from happy birthday to rest in peace. Some people became emotional but what is the use,” added Suresh, another facebook friend. “Happy Birthday, pal. Miss you a lot. Hope the gods are taking good care of you and you are entertaining them with your favourite Kishore Kumar songs like Chingari Koi Badke,” wrote another friend, Oswal Peirera.

Facebook policy is that when someone dies, his relatives have to inform the social networking  site to delete the account and the network may or may not delete the pages. “I still keep him in my facebook friends list because I can remember my friend sometimes. His birthday gave me a small opportunity to memorize him,” added another friend.

A report by Time magazine quoting Max Kelly, Facebook's head of security, said the social networking site announced the company's policy of "memorializing" profiles of users who have died, taking them out of the public search results, sealing them from any future log-in attempts and leaving the wall open for family and friends to pay their respects.
 

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