Back in the early 80’s, when I was 8 or 9, my father was posted in a city of Bangladesh, named Rajshahi. Back then, a group of students from Japan came to Rajshahi on a program by JICA. There was one student in that group, named Hiroyoshi Murata. I am not sure how my father met him, but eventually they became friends. He learned Bangla from the rickshawalas. Obviously, that was not a very nice way to learn a language. Later, my father taught him how to read and write Bangla. He was such a wonderful student that he picked up the language in just 3 months. He could write, read and not to mention, speak, fluently in Bangla. To tell you the truth, his Bangla handwriting was far better than mine back then. When he left Bangladesh Murata Chacha started writing letters to me. In Bangla.
He was my first ever pen-friend. Through his letters, nicely written in Bangla, my knowledge of Japan was just getting richer and richer. Very soon Japan has become one of my favorite want-to-go-to places. Through his letters I learned why Japan is called the land of the rising sun. I learned how the country looked in winter, how Sapporo got prettier during the cherry blossom season, how beautiful the snow capped Fuji looked, etc. I learned how hard-working the Japanese people are. I learned (for the first time in my life) that they eat a special kind of food made with rice and fish, that they call sushi. With every letter, he used to send me a piece of origami. Sometimes, it’s a dragon, sometimes, it’s a doll. He wanted me to learn the technique of folding.
In return, I would write to him the stories of my school, how my little doll got married to my friend’s doll, how I joined the girls guide team, how my first camping went, how I won the dance competition and so on. It was a long distance relationship, with innocent love for each other. He always wrote his letters addressing me as স্নেহের বোন রিমা (my dearest sister Rima) as my folks used to call me Rima, even though I used to call him Murata chacha (uncle), because he was my father’s friend.
Last time I met him when I was in 11th grade, back in the late 80s. After that, I got busy with my studies, my friends, my dreams and eventually I lost contact with him. My college life got me really busy with studies and hanging out with friends. The years went by and I started to ‘not-thinking-of-him’ anymore.
Since the dawn of the Internet in my life I have tried looking for him everywhere. He was not on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. I just couldn’t find him at all. And gradually I gave up the hope of seeing him again. I have always wanted to go to Japan, because of the stories I heard from him. But like many of my other dreams, I let it go too. I almost gave up hopes of communicating with him again, until a couple of months ago.
When I learned that we were going to Japan for the Contribution Conversation, I told my Connect Moderator friends about him, they suggested that I should not give up hopes. There are more advanced ways nowadays that using it properly I might be in luck finding him. So, I asked Chagpt and Bard how to find a person in google. Using their tips, I searched in google, once again. The very first article of Honest Food & Design got me goosebumps. There was a photo of a man and his wife, smiling, in that article. They were talking about their chicken farm that they were running for over 30 years. That took me back to ‘89. I remembered, Murata Chacha told my father, before he left for Japan, that he was going to start his own business, a chicken farm. Without knowing if this man was the same person that I was thinking he might be, I started comparing his photos of 34 years ago with the one in front of me. They looked pretty similar to me. Other than those wrinkles on his face and the shortage of hair on his head, both the pictures looked similar. Their name, the city, the farm, even the faces, they all match.
@HiroyukiTakisawa from Japan volunteered to call the farm to check if he was the same person. The next day he told me that this person DID go to Bangladesh in the early 80’s, but he doesn’t remember much about those days. He gave me a cell phone number and asked me to call between 7 and 11 PM Japan time.
So, I called him the next morning, at 8 AM my time. It was 10 PM Japan time. I started the conversation in English.
“Hello Sir, my name is Sonia. My family and friends know me as Rimi or Rima. I happened to know someone named Murata, from your city……”
He interrupted me in the middle and said, in pure Bangla, “কেমন আছো ?” (How are you)
I was awestruck. Couldn’t find my words for a couple of seconds. Finally I said, “আপনার এখনো বাংলা এতো ভালো মনে আছে!” (you still remember bangla so well!)
The conversation went on for about 8-10 minutes. None of us said a single word in English the entire time. I learned that he doesn’t use emails or any social media. That explains why I couldn’t find him all these years. He doesn’t know what texting or SMS is. He doesn’t know how to make a video call either. So, the best way to reach or contact him is to call him, unless of course, if I write a letter to him. A few years ago one of his friends suggested that he should have his own website to promote his business. That was his first digital print on the web world.
On my trip to Japan, I took an extra day off to meet him in Sapporo. He met me at the airport. Meeting him after so many years was so much fun. We talked and talked for hours together. He shared old photos that he took of me and my family during his stay in Bangladesh. We sang together. Laughed together. It was like those old days. We walked through the memory lanes together. Couldn’t love our time enough. I was in Naganuma for only a few hours. But it turned out to be one of the main highlights of my trip to Japan.
While this searching was in progress, an amazing team was formed named LGIT (Local Guides Investigation Team) presided by Hiroyuki, of course and the vice president is @PennyChristie , who came up with this brilliant idea and the name. Long live #LGIT. Love you guys!
On this day of Thanksgiving, I would like to thank #Google and the #Local_Guides team for making this almost impossible dream come true. I would never be able to find him back if I didn’t go to Japan for this trip. Because of you, I found my long lost friend back. Love you Google and Local Guides team. Zillions of thanks to you all and the people behind this technology. Google has surely made our lives easier. But finding someone after so many years is something I would not think of. Google has made it happen. I still can’t believe I have not only found Murata Chacha after so long but I have actually met him and his lovely wife. We talk almost every weekend. And it still feels like a dream to me.
