It’s my birthday soon so this morning I booked a flight to Venice, a hotel room, airport transfers and a restaurant, online. By the end of it I felt exhausted. The process felt like forever and the amount of information required seemed over the top. But, when my frustrations subsided, I looked at my watch and realized that only ten minutes had passed since I first started.

Between writing the first paragraph of this blog and coming back to write this, I’ve sent five emails and spoken to my cousin who is half way across the globe on Skype. So, essentially, in last half hour I’ve had breakfast, managed to get my birthday vacation sorted, I’ve worked a little, and also kept in touch with family.

Now, I can’t help but wonder – how did we ever get anything done without the Internet?

How on earth did we manage to book flights and holidays, stay in touch with loved ones, find our way around foreign cities, and do our shoe shopping without it?

Of course, I’m old enough to remember the days of no Internet, of no Google; the days when we booked our flights through a travel agent; the days when we stayed in touch with friends and family by snail mail and a dodgy phone box at the corner of the street. And yet, I grumble, puff and pout, about a ten-minute process that I did sitting in the comfort of my own home, still in my PJs.

Then as I browsed and surfed, I came across a freshly released three-minute advert by Google, which apart from tearing me up, made me feel even more ridiculous for complaining at all.

The video is Google’s attempt to break into the Indian market but what makes it so incredible is its universal application - even if a viewer doesn’t get the sub text and full context of the setting; even if you watch it without English subtitles, and even if you watch it without a clue of India’s and Pakistan’s history, I guarantee that you will still get the main message and shed a tear.

In 1947 India, which at the time was colonized by Britain, was partitioned into India and Pakistan. This created a mass exodus with millions of Muslims and Hindus fleeing across the new borders, fearing religious violence. This was one of the most traumatic happenings following World War II.

The video, which up to this morning had had more than 3 million views, shows the emotional trauma of two best friends (now elderly) who were separated as children and, how with a few clicks and searches their grandchildren, reunite them, possibly for one last time.

Why does it work so well?

Because the emotional force behind the video is based on human emotions that apply across the globe. It acknowledges that at the end of the day, as far removed as we are from certain countries, as afraid as we are of different cultures, peoples and creeds, deep down, in things that matter, we are all the same.

Watch the video here (bring on the tissues) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE