http://www.afternoondc.in/epaper/EpaperPost.aspx?id=160363
FINDING SYDNEY IN MUMBAI!
Thursday, February 11, 2016
By Asif Rizvi
Friends for 35 years, leave no stone unturned to locate their missing friend
A 35 year old friendship amongst 5 college time friends suddenly faced its toughest moment when one of the five thick friends, Sydney Miranda (56), a freelance teacher by profession went missing from Churchgate station on October 14, 2015.
Months have passed and there has been no leads or luck for his friends who have ingrained their search for Sydney into the core of their daily lives.... Sydney Miranda (56) went missing in October of 2015. He was last known to be at Churchgate station. On learning of his disappearance his friends including Shakir Virpurwala, an educator by profession and advocates Zulfikar Zariwala and Harsh Desai and others have been trying everything to trace their friend. “It was October 14 last year when Sydney, a resident of Thane had visited Churchgate to meet a friend after which he has been missing and we, his friends have been running from pillar to post to find him. It sounds really sad for us all that Sydney mysteriously went missing, we have been in touch since college days and however busy schedule it may be we managed to stay in touch. On learning that Sydney has gone missing we lodged a missing persons complaint in the Marine Drive police station but it has been over four months now and he has not been traced,” said Shakir Virpurwala. When ADC contacted the Marine Drive police station regarding Sydney's missing complaint, the police officials said, “Prior and after the missing complaint of Sydney there has been over 15 missing cases and all have been detected. In Sydney's case we are yet to find a concrete clue to locate him, the investigations and process for tracing him are going on.”
SYDNEY’s SEARCH
Not only Marine Drive police station but Sydney's friends have also lodged complaints about him going missing in Thane and the Crime Branch and when this seemed not enough to locate their close friend they have started campaigns on the social media including Facebook, Twitter and have a dedicated Whatsapp group for updates on finding Sydney. “We have made a whatsapp group, 'Sydney Search', where all our friends are active and also dedicate their time each day to be updated on fresh inputs on Sydney, if any. Among the friends in the Whatsapp group there are Sydney's college friends, professional friends and relatives who regularly update regarding what they did each day to locate him and updates from the police stations are also shared in the group. The talks also turn emotion often discussing the good old college days,” added Shakir.
POSTERS ON BIKES
“I ride a bike and thought that it was a best way to get at least some information on Sydney, hence I decided to stick posters of Sydney mentioning his last seen spot, age, height, clothes he was wearing and the contact numbers. We, his friends wish someday someone who has seen him could give us a clue and our friend would return,” said Shakir.
FACEBOOK SYDNEY
Shakir said, “Today the social media is popular in the country and most of the people are active on the social media, When there were complaints being filed with the authorities and days passed with no success in finding Sydney, we friends decided to search him and seek help of the masses through social media. A Facebook page, 'Sydney search update' was created and we update the page with Sydney's photographs, those include the latest ones and the old ones. We post messages and appeals to people to help us in finding Sydney.”
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