As I write this, an Air India London-Delhi flight is preparing for emergency landing at Delhi airport. This is 'breaking news' on Star and Aaj Tak.
So many breakdowns, in so short a span of time. Some natural (non-stop rain over large parts of India), some man-made (ONGC fire, terrorist attack in Srinagar, the earlier plane skid involving - is it more than coincidence? - Air India).
Yeh ho kya raha hai. We've always been a country where things are not quite perfect but somehow life continues to function 'normally'.
Those who believe in that astrological alignments would say 'buri dasha aayi hai'. Philosophy kaho ya realism, the events of the past week have brought home the fact that life is very fragile. When your time on this earth is up, it's up. Nothing you can do about it...
Death be not proud
Sometimes it can come up on you unexpectedly - like it did for the many whose houses collapsed all of a sudden on July 26. Or the three teenagers who were asphyxiated in their car outside Mithibai college.
At other times you can see death approaching. And that, is even worse.
My favourite uncle started having 'back pain'. All kinds of remedies were tried - it would just not go away. Two months later came the startling diagnosis: cancer in the kidney, stage 4.
Last Wednesday he passed away. It took less than 8 weeks for the disease to ravage his body, his mind and his family.
Life is so unfair. That a man so good, so kind, so generous, so wonderful, jovial and loving should die at the age of 48. Just like it's so unfair that those 3 teenage boys should die in this freak rainfall - a few minutes after calling home to day they were OK.
And at times like this all I can think is the 'cycle of rebirth' makes sense. Maybe we do suffer in this life for past sins and lead a better one in our next birth.
And I say this not as a devout Hindu but just as someone searching for some kind of answer to the cards which appear to be dealt out so randomly by the Hand Above...
Update @ 11.30 pm: The Air India passengers landed safely... NDTV is reporting today's rains were 'not like last time'. Now all we need is a little sunshine to really lift the gloom hanging - literally - like mist over this city....!
Hey, nice post btw. being a believer in Indians and not India, i think i wud agree with u totally. The sab chalta hai attitude is shady, doesnt help anyone and least of all those who lose some one they knw.
ReplyDeleteA few months back my next door neighbor had surgery for something.(Duno and Dont care) got back frm the hospital and was home for a few days sick, after continually being ill, one day he passed out while his heart was still beating. The battle was a exercise in futility and he died. i saw how life passes before one's eyes when u see death.
My sis being a doc, said that he had Kidney failure for he had all the external symptoms, but he was operated for somethin else. Kudos to the docs.
Being a Indian is great if you get drinking water and all the other facets, but the bitter truth is most of our population doesnt, and thats the bottomline
Hi Rashmi,
ReplyDeletePerfecty agree with you on the helplessness one faces in matters of death/incapacitation of someone we know. No amount of rationality can explain the sudden disappearance of someone we felt the presence of, a while ago. And it always feels like a while ago, always feels like would have been better to know them longer.
Regarding other things, the positive sign is more per capita accountability in the new generation (people my age who started working not too long ago), so I believe the Indian dream is slated for a joy ride. Amen.
Best,
Rahul
Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.
ReplyDelete- William Goldman
God Bless your favourite Uncle. Me thinks living a superb life till 48 is better than sagging on till a 'ripe' 79.
ReplyDeleteMy Mentor left me at 39. But he lived his life... to the fullest.
Life is full of surprises, some pleasant and some not. And the whole concept of Karma catching up may afterall, be true. But I wouldnt dare say it in any forum. P.S. A few years ago, the manager of the English Football Team had said something on similar lines, and had to face a public outcry because he had said "people who are disabled or are in suffering are so because of bad karma in past birth". Needless to say, he had to resign from his post.
ReplyDeleteas far i feel everything is going fine as planned just chk out this blog
ReplyDeletehttp://thenumbertwelve.blogspot.com/2005/07/every-thing-is-fine_21.html
as far i feel everything is going fine as planned just chk out this blog
ReplyDeletehttp://thenumbertwelve.blogspot.com/2005/07/every-thing-is-fine_21.html
Hello Ma'am
ReplyDeleteI, like a lot of people, have been doing some thinking about the nature of the universe and whether it is really as random as it seems.Of course,sudden, unfortunate and almost senseless tragedies seem hard to explain.The theory of karma does offer an explanation but what if there is something more to this?What if all there is actually an order to all the disorder in this world?Would these freak accidents and sudden tragedies, if studied over a long period in time, turn out to be periodic in nature? Just thoughts in my head at this point of time.Even science falls short when it comes to a concrete explanation, although there are more than one distinct schools of thought.I've written on my blog about this:
http://phoenix2100.blogspot.com/2005/06/unbreakable-bonds.html
And of course,everyone has something to share about the floods.Here are my two cents:
http://phoenix2100.blogspot.com/2005/07/water-water-everywhere.html
http://phoenix2100.blogspot.com/2005/08/no-wheel-drive.html
Reuben Abraham
ReplyDelete