I just had one of those Drive Way Moments, where I sit in my car outside of my house unable to kill the engine because I'd briefly lose power to the radio (which is why I always donate to my local NPR station). This one was about a man from the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh who had been dead for eighteen years and was getting really tired of it.
The man, Lal Behari, was declared dead unbeknownst to him by relatives who used the scheme to obtain deeds to his land. Mr Behari only learned of his demise much later when trying to file some official governmental forms and was refused because of his lack of living status. "But you know me, and I am standing right before you," he said to the bureaucrat who happened to be an old acquaintance. "That may be," was the reply, "but the Lal Behari in this paperwork is deceased.
Behari tried many things to fight his death, including attempting to claim widow benefits for his wife and running for a seat on parliment to gain attention. He also organized a group called the Association of the Dead consisting of nearly 100 other citizens who were falsely bereft of their mortal coils. In the end it took nearly twenty years to be resurrected and cast away the shroud of red tape.
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