Life and Death - Think Beyond | posted by Sreeja

Have you ever thought about death? Have you ever thought of death as a solution to all your problems? Death is within us right from our birth. It is like a virus in a system, activated under certain conditions. We are living towards death. Indeed it is an unexpected guest and the guest whom we all hate.

Life becomes meaningless when one doesn’t have any goal in life. One can really enjoy his life only when he realizes the fact that he too has to leave this world one day and cannot come back again. Life is like a dewdrop. It could vaporize at any time. Suicide rates in Kerala are more than in the other states, even though we have the highest literacy rates. They find death as the solution to all their problems. One should take up challenges to succeed in life. Then only he can enjoy the true spirit of life.

Let me narrate my experience that changed my attitude towards life and death.

Generation gap—This is the first word that strikes you when you hear about grand parents. But we never had such an issue. They always encouraged and appreciated novel ideas and were with us in every walk of life.

My grandma recovered quite slowly from my grandpa’s absence. She returned to normal life within a month. But that was not the beginning of a new life. She was hospitalized within a week for treatment to control diabetes. She had a wound in her ankle and the infection had started spreading around it. Her sugar level in blood was too high. Within a few days, it was brought down to normal and she underwent an operation. Even at that time she had rays of hope. She wished to come home, walk and see everybody. She could walk inside the room with my mom’s help. She was always pleasant and never expressed her pain. Whenever the doctor asked something, she had a pleasant smile on her face and never spoke anything. She hardly ate anything and never slept. She seemed restless and jumped up frequently from bed. She slowly started speaking and whatever she said were jokes that made us happy and lively. Even at that time the sugar level was erratic. The pain in her ankle also increased and she couldn’t even lift her leg from the bed. The doctor prescribed a new medicine to prevent the viral infection in the wound, so that it would heal quickly. That gave her relief and she was happy, preparing to come home within a week. But the next night she had a stroke. The reports revealed that a part of her brain had got damaged. So even if she recovers, she would have lost some of her senses. Since she had paralysis earlier, the chances of her recovery were minute. She was fed via nose every thirty minutes. She never got up from her bed. We could understand her pain only from her facial expressions, when the doctor dressed her legs and when injections were given.

She could recognize us from our voice but never opened her eyes or spoke anything. She was slipping away slowly. She turned pale and we could see several familiar faces changing in her. She had stopped responding to our voices also. But the very next midnight, she opened her eyes and looked at my father for a long time. Her jaws were shivering, unable to speak, her face was full of sorrow and that was her last reaction.

Next day too passed without any improvement. There wasn’t much we could hope for. Silence was the answer to all. Medicines, injections, syrups did their duty every thirty minutes, but all in vain. The next day when sun came out through the hills and brightened this world, we missed our light. It was only ninety-five days since my grandpa had passed away.

Even today they are with us, looking down at us glittering from the vast starry sky.

Let me quote Tagore’s lines:

" If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars”.

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