Through my Eyes - Missing!

Is it me or are there a lot of peoplegoing missing recently? Young and old. White, black, Indian and coloured,people are disappearing all the time. Either being abducted or just vanishingwithout trace off the face of the earth. Just Google missing people in SA andone of the first pages, which comes up is the updated version of the SAP'smissing persons' list.

It's heart-breaking!

Recently, while working on the Green Pages for The Bugle, we came acrossChristopher in one of the stores that advertised on our pages. He seemedknowledgeable about all kinds of esoteric things; he was a herbalist, a deeplyspiritual and wise person. We sat around the store for hours listening to hiswisdom, not realizing that just two weeks later, Christopher would just vanish.

MelGibson's movie, Sound of Freedom is about child trafficking and the business oftrading with kids, the movie has stirred up some serious controversy regardingthe exploitation of children around the world and the people who contribute andprofit from this sad reality.

Hollywoodis at the forefront of this witch-hunt and some seriously big names are comingthrough. People who once were the Gods and Goddesses of prime time moralpreaching, are now accused of evil.

ThankGod I live in Ballito.

Icannot imagine the pain and anguish of the family and loved ones who becomevictims of a Missing person. The uncertainty of their wellbeing, the sheerhopelessness of losing someone you love. Loosing them into a deep black hole ofthe unknown.

It must be unbearable.

Ithink of people like Maddie MCcain and the Vatican Girl. These souls, whom Ihave never met, affected my life greatly. I guess it's my helplessness in thesituation that I cannot change that makes it sop agonising.

Twoand a half years ago, on the 7th of February 2021, an award winning SouthAfrican actor, Pranesh Maharaj, walked out of is home in Sunningdale, DurbanNorth. He told his sister he was going to the garage nearby to buy cigarettes.He never returned.

Ashours turned into days and days into weeks, his helpless sister prayed andprayed and hoped that Pranesh was just taking a break from the family.

Lasttime we spoke, a couple of weeks before Pranesh vanished, he spoke about feelinguseless, angry and misunderstood. I reached out asking him to write about it,as a motivation for others who are in the same position, at the time I blamedCovid for his state of mind. However I couldn't have known.

Sixteenmonths after Pranesh's disappearance, his sister, Neleka, received the dreadedcall she was expecting, Pranesh's burned car was found in Bishu, his decomposedremains were found hundreds of kilometers from his burned car.

Whathappened to Pranesh, we will never know as Neleka and the Maharaj family stillawaits the results of the autopsy but whatever happened between home and thepetrol station just 200m from is home will always remain a mystery.

Letslook after each other, wherever you are...