DEATH

I was some 12 years old. Was sleeping on the terrace, and was talking to my Mom and I asked her “Mummy, hum sab ek din mar jate hain kya ? “. Well I don’t really remember what her exact words were. But I remember some buzz words: “ache kaam karo”, “bhagwaan ke paas”, “darne wali kya baat hai”. And this reminds me that I was once talking to my Dad also on the same topic, again on the terrace. Oh man, I was so inquisitive sort off a kid. Actually I still am, well though not inquisitive! So back to “discussion on death with my dad”. Again I only remember one liner that I said. I told my dad, “papa, agar marna hi hai to aise marna chahiye na ki aadmi so raha hai, aur phir agle din utha hi nahin”. And my Dad was affirmative. He remarked that that will be a nice way to die, peacefully.

But is it, do you actually want to die while sleeping? Without being aware in the most dramatic moment of your life… I don’t know what was the sensation of Bhagat Singh all that time in the jail . or the moment before he was hanged. Or the sensation of all those Jews, walking towards the death chambers where they knew they will be put in the blast furnace. Well, two unrelated examples. I am really bad with examples. But what a knowledge, knowing that when you are gonna die. We all know ONE day it’s bound to happen. But what a state of mind: “I am gonna die on this Friday the thirteenth when the comet K9 strikes the planet Earth”. Or a terminally ill patient: Rajesh Khanna – Anand. What makes them breath the next very moment ? what makes them eat ? drink ? talk ? What do they think ? Do the realize the futility of life or realize some other bigger truth ? And worst part is that if this some one is an atheist, then he knows he is not even going to heaven. Here I must say that the people who invented heaven and hell must be genius, what a concept! Well, so if this guy is an atheist, he knows that after death the only thing that happens is that your body is burnt to ashes. Or for that matter you can also be buried and then the insects will have a feast. This is the same body, you care so much about. Go to a Gym, so that you can melt your tummy into abs, go to a hair saloon to get that chic look, wear that adidas t-shirt, rolex watch, frameless glasses. Damn. This is so ironic.

Sorry for interruption: But Spain just scored an equalizer against Tunisia!!!! If you are reading this in 2100, I am talking about football world cup 2006 Germany.

Coming back to the point, I have started wondering if it actually makes a difference if we know WHEN we are going to die. Why does that make a difference? Isn’t the knowledge that WE ALL WILL die someday enough? May be you will say that if we are always conscious of death, we won’t be able to live naturally? But what does living naturally mean? Get up in the morning, go for a shit, put some caffeine in your body, again go for a shit (for people like me who have an uncontrolled abdomen!), bath, ready, auto, office, gossip, work, more gossip, auto, home, news, fag/sex (bachelor / married), sleep. DUH! So much for a normal life. Tell you what, we have been blessed by consciousness for a purpose, and I think that the purpose is to make us conscious of the inevitable. But the catch is that we don’t know why we have been told this. And in this answer lies the ultimate truth. To be continued.
Until then, if I find that answer, I will share it in this blog ;-)


LESSON: If you are writing a blog entry and you are writing for the first time, then please don’t watch a football match parallely. Switch OFF the TV.