Vivek Narain Missing Father Journal
This journal will follow my experiences as I track my missing father. I will update when significant search events occur, if the internet connection Gods are good to me.
Jan 2, 2008 – Using a mixture of online white pages and several “People Finder” sites, I discovered some possible hits for my father’s name. I’m assuming he didn’t change his name, but I don’t know for sure. Several of the hits came from Arizona so I’m traveling there first. Flying down an empty desert highway to Arizona on New Years Eve was quite the experience. I know it sounds crazy, but every time I see a 1990 Buick I try and stop the owner and ask them who they bought it from, hoping it would be an Indian man or some traceable lead back to my father. The chances of me finding anything substantial from this technique is slim, there must be thousands of 1990 Buicks circulating around the states. Anyways, I’m in Arizona and I’ve already traveled to a couple of towns to ask around for my father, I’ll keep you updated if anything turns up.
Jan 3, 2008 – Before I left I talked extensively with my father’s old coworkers. My dad worked as a financial consultant, the other consultants said he kept to himself and was a secretive man. Maybe his secrecy was due to him being a first generation immigrant, but he felt no resentment to western culture, he despised life in India and he would always say how much he loved living in America, so his secrecy was definitely strange. No significant update, I just wanted to share that thought.
Jan 11, 2008 – Before I left, my mother and I scoured all family document s in the hope of finding tax information or financial papers that would have his Social Security Number, but it appears my father took almost everything that had useful tracking information. However, we did salvage some bank statements that my mom misplaced years ago, and they had some banking numbers that we tracked before I left. Apparently, some activity had been flagged several years ago in the area I’m currently poking around in Arizona, so it looks like I’m on the tail of a strong lead.
Jan 23, 2008 – So I’ve spent a lot of time traveling between towns in the area I had coined as a hotspot for my father’s activity. Apparently a man with his name had lived here several years ago, and the banking charges I had tracked also appeared to stem from that similar time period, so I may have caught onto to a substantial trail, despite the fact that it is very cold. I’m assuming my father switched credit cards, and maybe made this purchase on his old statement by mistake, freaked out, and then decided to move again so he could not be traced.
Jan 25, 2008 – One solid piece of info that turned up was the Buick’s license plate number, which I found displayed in the background of an old picture of me and my father in our driveway. My mom used the license plate info to get my fathers driver’s license information. I entered his license information into a missing person site that I subscribed too and it flagged a traffic violation in Mississippi. That’s a long haul, but I’m ready for it. The police said they would give me information about the violation and the updated address of the license if I could come down and prove I’m related. I’m going to spend some more time looking for leads in the Arizona area, but after that I’m going to head out to Mississippi.
February 12, 2008 – Driving across a large part of country was fun, but a little stressful. My van broke down once already, took some time to fix it but I got it running again. Before I left Arizona I checked the city records to track his name again, once again no luck. Looks like despite all the leads, Arizona is a dead end, I was right to leave.
February 18, 2008 –I don’t know how this is going to turn out. I had trouble getting solid information from the traffic violation, and now I’m sitting in Mississippi wondering what the hell to do next. I have a few more old addresses, and even a phone number. I’ve given up checking on Buicks, I’m going to assume my father got rid of the car itself, and unless I can track down who he sold it too and hope that person has some information on where my father ran off too then it’s just a waste of time.
February 26, 2008 – Checked out state voting registration records to see if his voting history could lead me to a current location, but my father never voted and apparently still doesn’t. Guess what? It’s another total dead end!
March 3, 2008 – Interesting, yet frustrating break in the search. My mom asked for an original copy of a tax return she and my father filed years ago, and his SSN was on it! We used this information and discovered that my dad is in fact still alive, and they have an updated address for him back in Arizona, though not in the areas I was looking. Who knows if he is still at this address, but it is a great piece of information and definitely the best lead of the entire hunt. The only problem is I have to go all the way back to Arizona.