“Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear,
To be we know not what, we know not where. “
“Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.”
I have lost a dear colleague and friend. No one could have played a prank so well on April Fool’s Day. It had to be him. Witty, humorous, gentle, a loving husband and father, the typical Gujju turned Bengali that he was, he made a real fool of all of us. He had suffered a massive heart attack that morning and he was gone in a jiffy leaving his stunned familyand friends behind. We are still in a state of disbelief. Death is inevitable but when death strikes unannounced it affects people in the immediate surroundings in a very personal way. I immediately felt this can happen to anyone , to me as well.A friend remarked that the young son who had lost his father reminded him of his own son who was of the same age. The son was in high school and had a long way to go. People are curious to know the reasons of the death. Did the man play with his body ,did he forget to take care of himself. Death had no right to behave in this manner. Death cannot be so whimsical. People needed to reassure themselves .It must have been the man’s fault. Man who is so intelligent can avoid those wrong steps, man can control his destiny. Sometimes even after intense probing we remain clueless just as it happened this time with my colleague’s death.
Such deaths can become life changing incidents for many. A friend, who lost her mentor and guru in a similar manner, has still not recovered from the shock even after a lapse of several years. Another intelligent, educated lady lost her mental balance after her husband’s unexpected death and now often imagines that her husband is still alive and would be with her any moment. My cousin the wife of a senior bureaucrat used to a life of grand style since marriage was left stranded in mid-life after her husband passed away suddenly, struggling with three children, travelling in chartered buses and working as a low rank employee in a govt office .
I wonder how the family is going to cope with this tragedy. My friend and his wife shared one of the closest relationships that I have seen between couples. The scale and depth of personal loss is often determined by the strength of the bond that ties individuals . My heart goes out to this poor woman. May God give her and her children strength to bear this tragedy with dignity and hope.
To be we know not what, we know not where. “
“Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.”
I have lost a dear colleague and friend. No one could have played a prank so well on April Fool’s Day. It had to be him. Witty, humorous, gentle, a loving husband and father, the typical Gujju turned Bengali that he was, he made a real fool of all of us. He had suffered a massive heart attack that morning and he was gone in a jiffy leaving his stunned familyand friends behind. We are still in a state of disbelief. Death is inevitable but when death strikes unannounced it affects people in the immediate surroundings in a very personal way. I immediately felt this can happen to anyone , to me as well.A friend remarked that the young son who had lost his father reminded him of his own son who was of the same age. The son was in high school and had a long way to go. People are curious to know the reasons of the death. Did the man play with his body ,did he forget to take care of himself. Death had no right to behave in this manner. Death cannot be so whimsical. People needed to reassure themselves .It must have been the man’s fault. Man who is so intelligent can avoid those wrong steps, man can control his destiny. Sometimes even after intense probing we remain clueless just as it happened this time with my colleague’s death.
Such deaths can become life changing incidents for many. A friend, who lost her mentor and guru in a similar manner, has still not recovered from the shock even after a lapse of several years. Another intelligent, educated lady lost her mental balance after her husband’s unexpected death and now often imagines that her husband is still alive and would be with her any moment. My cousin the wife of a senior bureaucrat used to a life of grand style since marriage was left stranded in mid-life after her husband passed away suddenly, struggling with three children, travelling in chartered buses and working as a low rank employee in a govt office .
I wonder how the family is going to cope with this tragedy. My friend and his wife shared one of the closest relationships that I have seen between couples. The scale and depth of personal loss is often determined by the strength of the bond that ties individuals . My heart goes out to this poor woman. May God give her and her children strength to bear this tragedy with dignity and hope.
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