Keeping the memories alive — An Orma Story

April 9th was no ordinary day. It was Dadaji’s 75th birthday. A big milestone to cross, no doubt about it.

Raj wanted to give his Dadaji the gift of a lifetime. But what do you give to a man who has everything? He had travelled the world and founded two successful companies. He had a wonderful marriage with a wife he loved unconditionally. Together they had raised three children together. All those children were married and went on to have their own kids — Dadaji really had everything.

However, of late, things had been quiet in his life. Two of his children moved to different parts of the world. His third child lived a few hours away. Busy lives got in the way and they were not able to see each other as often as he would have liked.

He had all of them to himself when they were growing up, so now it was only fair that they led their own lives now. But with his birthday soon approaching, he would have liked for everyone to be around to celebrate — but with jobs and children of their own, he knew that would be a big ask. Not to worry though, his wife and him could go out for meal and an ice cream.

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Raj loved his grandfather dearly. Even though he lived a few hours away, he made it a point to regularly go spend the weekend with his grandparents. He knew they loved his visits as it would brighten up the atmosphere and bring big smiles to their faces!

In the lead up to the big birthday, Raj had emailed his aunts, uncles and cousins, asking for old photographs and memories with his Dadaji. As the photos started pouring in, some had memories written as notes, while others would send the email and then call Raj to narrate stories over the phone. The plan was to make a scrap book but with the length of the stories he was hearing and reading, he was worried that his grand dad would not be able to read so much. He needed to come up with another solution to make it a memorable gift and experience for his Dadaji.

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Later that day, while at college, Raj met up with a group of friends for a cup of tea before his classes. He told them about his plans for his grand dad’s birthday when Tia gave him an idea. She took his phone and downloaded an app called Orma. She then explained to him that instead of having to painstakingly write down everyone’s stories and memories, he could just take a picture of the photographs and for each one of them, make a video of each person TALKING in vivid detail about the memory. And with all of this, he could make an album and play it all for his grandfather, where he could see the pictures and videos together in one screen! Raj was thrilled because the whole idea of a scrap book was becoming insipid anyway.

He rushed home and emailed all of his family with the link to download Orma on their phones. To be sure they all received it, he also sent them a Whatsapp with the link. To make it easier for each of them, he himself started creating the Ormas by adding in the pictures into the app. For each image he added, he would send a request to a family memeber to ‘complete his Orma’, whereby their job would be to simply record a video and click the submit button. Once done, Raj would get notified and add each of the completed Orma’s into an orma album on his app.

After multiple reminders and follow ups, 3 days later, Raj finally had all the pictures and memories together on his Orma app — well in time for Dadaji’s birthday.

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On the day his birthday, Dadaji wakes up to find Raj waiting for him in the hall.

Raj gives him a big hug, wishes him a very Happy Birthday and asks him to settle down so he can watch something. He opens up his phone and starts playing the Orma album. Dadaji’s face lights up as he sees each photo and watches his family members describe in detail all the good memories associated with them. He is over the moon because their stories make him remember all that he could not remember due to old age. More so, he could watch and hear each of his family members narrate their stories — bringing a tear to his eyes.

After watching the Ormas in the album, he tells Raj this is the best gift he has ever received. With Ormas, he was able to rope in his family from all over the world, and he felt their presence while watching them.

Raj smiles, because he knows he nailed it!

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Like Raj, You too can download the Orma from the Play Store.