Thursday, May 24, 2012

What it means to Die

Oh yeah! How inappropriate. How would one know what it means to die until one dies and how can the aftermath be expressed :)

Well, what I am going to talk here is the hearsay. Death means an end to problems, events, situations, freedom from all. "Go die!" is something we say to an irritating person. So in short death means peace? I think I am close even if I am not right.

This evening at around 5:15 PM, I left office so that I could escape the traffic. I am commuting by scooter since 2 weeks; with all these fuel hikes and the irate attitude of the auto drivers; I decided enough is enough. Anyway; today there was a pile of vehicles on the road, moving slowly feet by feet in snail's pace. The traffic was piled for a km.

My fingers were aching by applying frequent brakes. It was so frustrating; to make matters worse a Mallu guy driving a Volkswagen Vento behind me was constantly honking!!! How do I know he was a Mallu? The car was KL registered. Anyway, it was not that I was having a party on the road. The road was choc-a-bloc, where will I find a path to move? After few minutes, I thought I should do something about it.

I turned behind and asked gestured what was the problem? That guy gave a smile, loser! I just asked him to wait and continued at snail's place. So after those horrible pushing the vehicle for one km, noticed flowers strewn on the road. Not another party procession! But the HC ruled out any party meetings within the city radius! So this must be something else. Any festive procession? What's special today? No festivities. Then I see a policeman helping streamline the traffic. A hearse van ahead of him.

It was the final procession of a dead person. As in some of the customs, they were celebrating his/her final journey. Bulbs of flowers strewn on the road, music band playing the standard music, a couple of drunk men dancing while remaining oblivious to the traffic pile up they created. The road is busy from 5 to 8; there are 2 major Business Parks hosting around 30+ MNCs having 50,000+ people working. Everyone rushes home during these peak hours.

My thoughts were about the dead person. How would he/she have been? Quality? Would that person have liked celebrating any event at the cost of causing trouble to others? Or was that person a trouble all the time that he/she is living(dead) up to the expectations?

Die in peace but leave others in trouble? I hope whoever that person was would have hated the trouble this event has caused; poor thing was helpless.

30 comments:

  1. I know what you mean. But people who are still alive are not at all sensitive. Bah what am I talking about! Yeah, many people don't realize these things. And the same people abuse left-right-centre if it's a procession of someone else and they are stuck in traffic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Neha,

      Yes, sensitivity and common sense are the qualities you find very rare.

      Delete
  2. It happens, rather frequently.. and people don't care.. the person would have hated but who cares what he thinks or thought.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Goingbeyondthepages,

      Yes true. And because it was the funeral, the traffic police couldnt do much

      Delete
  3. Hi Bindu,
    thanks for the visit. yesterday only I started blog hopping .Was a little busy with my work. I have joined online shops and that is hogging all my time.

    Reg. the Post. Last journey with drum beats, flowers and fire crackers is v.common where I stay. But it moves fast without creating road blocks. This is small town and we do not have traffic of big cities too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. chitra ma'am,

      Nice to have you back. People have to be sensitive to the trouble they could cause. It was such a mess that day; being Friday everyone wants to rush home

      Delete
  4. Mourning or celebration we have scant respect for acting in a civilized manner:(

    ReplyDelete
  5. ooops..
    well I have in my will that when I die Two things to happen , One is to take my ashes to india and the second is there has to a party and my friends to have a Alcoholic party, for which i have already put some money on the side ..

    You are most welcome to attend it :)
    so hopefully there wont be any of this to hassle people ..

    Bikram's

    ReplyDelete
  6. Valid points you have shared...
    In some religions, if a person lives long enough (90Plus types), his last journey is celebrated!
    Of course, we as a society do not have any respect for anybody else's issues/problems.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shilpa,

      Yeah...the concept of society is changing

      Delete
  7. A good way of conveying the point.
    Do we know for certain what holds in store after death as we do know what holds in store the next moment in our life?

    The frenzied procession you described is merely ritualistic as any other rituals , just for the sake of it.

    The ancients brought into practise such revelry after a death , because they may have thought that all that mortals who stay behind can do is celebrate the inevitable and keep away sorrow of the passing away of the loved one.

    But B, we have much symbolic practises in life which plummets into sheer opportunism and hypocrisy as we do not imbibe the spirit .

    The mallu honking , is as typical as a mallu can be |"rude". ha!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anil,

    Agree anil. We have been practicing the rituals without understanding the reason; the spirit is long dead. The mallu guy was a moron, no offense here. He should have known my scooter doesnt have flying capability. Anyway..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Trivandrum is notorious for its processions through the main streets. All political parties, religious groups, trade unions and whatnot indulge - rather revel, in blocking the streets for hours and putting the local population to much difficulty. While the victims would be cursing the procession, many of them would be participants in their own special interest groups taking out a procession.

    B, if tomorrow, the workers of the MNCs in Bangalore took out one, and asked you to join it, wouldn't you? If tomorrow, the Bankers' Association that I belong to takes out a procession and call me to join it, I would have to, blocking the streets or not.

    Hundreds of acres of paddy field and wetlands in the outskirts of Trivandrum have been filled up, little hillocks smashed down, for the Technopark, Trivandrum's version of the InfoCity. Some may lament the loss of wetlands, some may crow for 'technology development and progress'.

    It is the Might of Money that rules the world, so let a little Death March pass by once in a while; let the poor believe that they are powerful enough to trouble the gov'nrs once in a while - and - who knows you wouldn't be paraded in such style one day? :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Balan,

      It seems you are pissed off the technology companies than anything else :) Would I join such a protest and block roads? Definitely wont. Anything that troubles a larger group is a no-no to me. The poor have all right to trouble the government but not poor citizens as us. You just see the glamorous glass facade and technical jargon; but the work we do and the stress we deal with; I am sure we are specially wired to face that. So all one wants to do is go home and take some much needed rest.

      And about me being paraded in such style one day; I would make sure why I am alive anything of that sort wouldnt happen. People cant go about doing anything in the pretext of being poor isnt it Balan?

      Delete
    2. Now who got pissed off? What only I meant to convey is that we do have to put up with little inconveniences created by others! And that we tend to forget that what we may think is necessary for ourselves could be a bother for others. I have nothing against MNCs, but am sad that Nature is losing out to Technology.
      pl don't be offended.

      Delete
    3. Oh no! Balan why would I be offended? I only got rubbed off with the words "let the poor believe that they are powerful enough to trouble the gov'nrs once in a while".....its not the government who are in trouble Balan. Its the hapless citizens.

      Yeah, we do put up with the inconveniences isnt it? As each day; thats what everyone did that day; including the helpless traffic police.

      Delete
    4. Humanity is basically a law-less community; we have semblances of rules and regulations which only the hapless, law-abiding citizens like us abide by. Like you said, every day, every hour, we are bombarded with insensitive, intolerant and aggressive behaviour from our fellow-men. However we may protest, we may win a little, but lose more. People thrive in hurting others; you can see their maniacal grins! All I wanted to tell you is that it is pointless in our culture to expect the zillions of Indians to be polite,courteous and sensitive. No way. So we are better off, shrugging it aside; of course if you don't mind banging your head on concrete walls, that's fine too.

      Think of the Queue-jumpers. Even just half an hour back, I had to firmly pull out a man as I was standing in a queue. One to one, I can do it; but against a society of cretins!

      Delete
    5. I sure agree to this. My way to vent out frustration is to blog about it here :)

      Delete
  10. A perfect example of sit up and take note. The dead guy included:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Holy Lama,

      Where were you all these days? Welcome back. Thanks. Yup!

      Delete
  11. Hey B,

    Very true.. there are some topics, you try to change people and their thoughts, they never get convinced with what we say. Death procession is one such topic!! They have their own reasons, we have ours :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ramya,

      Its fine to have their own views. I didnt say one should stop all that. They should just be sensitive of fellow human beings

      Delete
  12. I hate Bangalore traffic. You can be stuck for hours. And, I hate those idiots who keep honking for no reasons. Then those horrible wedding celebrations. People using roads near Kalyan Mandapas to park their vehicles causing huge traffic snarls. We are such an insensitive species -- Indians. We think nothing of causing inconvenience to others whether by playing loud music or by blocking roads for processions. Who cares here!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rachna,

      Aah thats another irritant. They built the mandaps but provide no parking. The vehicles are parked on the road. Yeah no one cares.

      Delete
  13. We have certain customs---for the living and the dead.
    So be it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At the cost of trouble to others??? Thats ridiculous

      Delete
  14. When you are in a hurry to rush to our nest after a long working day... it sure annoys you.. to be left stranded in a sea of vehicles... and it really gets worse with a moron honking from behind expecting you to suddenly turn into hulk and sweep away the rest of the vehicles...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meety,

      Aaah, you understood. Yeah! It irks a lot

      Delete

I'd love to know what you thought :-) Please shoot!