Life

One of the routes I take frequently crosses a cremation ground. Most of the time, I zip past, but sometimes when the traffic slows, I find myself looking around. People rush past the place without giving it a second glance, then stop to bow at the temple right next door. And that is where I feel the dichotomy of our lives lies.

We forget that for each of us, at some given point, the cremation ground is our final destination. Everything else is interim. I see people coming out of the ground, heads bowed, carrying the sorrow of having seen the final rites of a loved one. For those few moments they are aware of how fleeting life is. But within a few moments, the irritability returns on their faces, arguments break out over parking and traffic, and the cremation ground stands forgotten.  

A few days ago, a close friend told me that her father had been diagnosed with a malignant tumour. There were no warning signs, nothing to prepare them; just a regular check-up that tilted the world they knew.

The thought struck me that each of us is just one diagnosis away from our world turning topsy-turvy. And yet, we waste so much time fretting, trying to manipulate the outcomes of our decisions and rushing through each day as though we are all in a race that we HAVE to win. Till one day, our mind or our body gives up and says, “Enough!” Then we moan our fates and ask plaintively, “Why me?”

I was having a fascinating conversation with a good friend recently where we talked about souls and what happens to them after they leave the mortal form. He believes that just as a soul chooses the form and family it wants to be born into, it is also given a choice at the time of passing of whether to move forward or remain in limbo. And very few souls choose to pass on immediately because, at the end of the day, when are we ever satisfied with all that we have got?

This reminded me of the words of Kaifi Azmi,

"इंसाँ की ख़्वाहिशों की कोई इंतिहा नहीं,

दो गज़ ज़मीं भी चाहिए दो गज़ कफ़न के बाद।"

We yearn, we desire, we want, but seldom do we pause and give thanks. Because as SRK said (and how can I not quote him),

“Tumhare paas jo hai tumhare hisaab se kam hai ... lekin kisi doosre ke nazar se dekho ... toh tumhare paas bahut kuch hai”

Whatever is destined will come to pass. Our choice lies in whether we accept it with a modicum of grace or rail against it with misery.

That choice is always ours.