‘Create acts, just not ads’

Bharat Avalani on 'Reunion', the Google Search ad that reminds him of Piyush Pandey

by e4m Staff
Published: Nov 8, 2025 4:22 PM | 2 min read

Reunion

My all-time favourite advertisement is “Reunion", a 2013 Google India advertisement for Google Search. It was directed by Amit Sharma, written by Sukesh Kumar Nayak, produced by an Indian branch of Ogilvy & Mather, and published on YouTube on 13 November 2013.

"Reunion" is a fictional account of the reunion between two elderly men, Baldev Mehra (Vishwa Mohan Badola) from India and Yusuf (Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu) from Pakistan, who were separated as children during the partition of India in 1947.

Piyush Pandey often spoke about this ad at conferences.

I asked him if it was real or a fiction. He told me that while it was fiction, the places in the advertisement were real. I requested him to send me the details as I was keen to visit the place on my next visit to Lahore, Pakistan. A work-related opportunity made me visit Pakistan in the winter of 2014.

I went to Fazal Sweets, in the old city of Lahore, and met its owner.

He also pointed out that most people in the neighbourhood would not have seen the ad. So I showed the ad to my rikshawallah and he had tears in his eyes. He gathered a few of his friends to see the advert again and not a single eye was dry after that.

We shared jajhariyas, the sweets that were featured in the ad.

I will never forget that joyful moment ever. The closest distance between two people is a story.