In Kochi cemeteries, there are tombstones stuck with QR codes

Every year, on April 30, Sneha Sundari’s grandfather and his family would go through all their photo albums together on his birthday. But ​the ritual ended with his demise years ago, and the albums began to accumulate in remote corners of the house. “You know how family albums are sometimes kept on the top shelves of cupboards and then forgotten,” she says.

This year, a few days before what would have been her grandfather’s 80th birthday, the Kochi-based code developer came across an Instagram ad for The Last Gift—a web memorial platform ​that sells 2x2-inch stainless steel plaques in a golden matte finish that bear a QR code engraved on them. Designed for grieving families and friends to crowdsource photographs and other digital keepsakes, the QR code, which can be stuck on a tombstone or framed at home, is the entry to a digital memorial of sorts.

​Inspired by the offering, Sundari joined forces with her mother to work on their family tree. “I learnt new things about him,” she shares. “My grandfather was a retired professor, but I didn’t know he was the ​HOD of the Physics department ​in his college in Tamil Nadu​, or that he had six siblings—I always thought he had five!” The undertaking quickly snowballed into a ​​family project, with uncles, aunts, and even former students contributing photos and stories.

Once they compiled the information, Sundari contacted the startup, and her grandpa’s memorial site was up within days. ​The plaque is now framed alongside a photograph of her grandfather in their family prayer room in Chennai.

Even in the age of Facebook and Instagram, it’s entirely possible to live our whole lives​ without being aware of the many photographs that exist of us. Th​is thought hit Kochi-based serial entrepreneur Stebin Chackalackal Xavier when he visited his childhood friend’s parents a year after his friend’s unexpected death. “They showed me an album of the funeral and I shared pictures and videos I had of him,” he recalls. The pictures evoked mixed feelings in the grieving parents, ​but they were happy to see them for the first time.

That’s when Chackalackal Xavier realised that a person’s photographs and memories often live scattered among extended family and friends and could offer some comfort to the grieving. “I thought of working on a platform where everyone could contribute pictures or stories to preserve someone’s memories,” he says.

In May this year, he launched The Last Gift, where a QR code leads one to access not just photographs but also a biography, a family tree, a message board, and even the location of someone’s gravesite. “Families reach out and share information about the deceased. Then, we assign a manager to design a digital memorial, which is then embedded in a QR code. We also generate a link through which others can contribute photos after the administrator’s approval,” he says, explaining how it works.

The product took shape after months of trial and error and some costly mistakes. For instance, Chackalackal Xavier spent nearly ₹30,000 on the first prototype, which was made on stainless steel with a​n unforgiving mirror finish. “The QR code’s readability was​ affected by the light reflection,” he recalls. The current avatar, priced at ₹2,000, can withstand Kerala’s​ intense heat and rains. “The QR code is engraved on the plaque using a laser, so it burns the surface of the stainless steel, leaving a permanent mark,” he says.

So far, Chackalackal Xavier has sold 105 units across India and beyond, including one to a Sri Lankan family in Germany. The 25-year-old is aware of the challenges of selling a product in a field as grim as death. “But my stand was clear from the beginning,” he says. “We will not approach a family grieving the death of a loved one just to sell our product. They should approach us for the service; it’s very inappropriate if it’s the other way around.”

According to media reports, in 2023 a family in Thrissur engraved a QR code on their 26-year-old son’s tombstone, linked to a website with his photos and videos. (This reporter was unable to access it via the link mentioned in these reports​.)​ In the US and UK too (and most recently Germany’s Munich), QR codes on cemeteries and memorial plaques have already become commonplace.

Cyber security expert Shweta Chawla says it’s an interesting concept, but she’s wary of a few privacy and security concerns. “For instance, there might be other family members, friends, or even children in the pictures. What happens to their privacy? And how safe is their data?” she questions. 

Chackalackal Xavier, who was a BTech Computer Science student (he dropped out in the final year), says he offers​ customers the option to keep the memorial private. “We can upload everything to a Google Drive and embed the link into the website. Then the access can only be granted by the admin.”

The startup is currently funded by an investor in the UK, and Chackalackal Xavier says he hasn’t started earning​ money from it yet. “But I’m driven by the idea of producing a product that has such deep emotional value, entirely in Kerala,” he adds.

One experience that affected him deeply was creating a memorial for a 23-day-old infant. “I broke down,” he recalls. “But the father called to thank me. He said it would keep the baby’s memory alive—especially for his brot​her.”