Death at My Doorstep

KHUSHWANT SINGH





We do not talk of death lightly -it is regarded as tasteless, ill-mannered and depressing.But death is an essential fact of life that makes no exceptions: it comes to kings as well as beggars, to the rich and poor, to saints as well as sinners, the aged and the young. It is best to prepare yourself for it and when it comes, welcome it with a smile on your lips.Being a rationalist, I do not accept irrational, unproven theories of life-death-rebirth in different forms as an unending process till our beings mingle with God and we attain nirvana. I do not accept the belief that while the body perishes, the soul survives. I do not know what the soul looks like; neither I, nor anyone has seen it. Nor do I accept the Hebrew, Christian and Islamic belief in the Day of Judgement -heaven and hell.
I have never subscribed to the belief that nothing bad should be said about the dead.If people were evil in their lifetimes, death does not convert them into saints. Such falsehoods may be condoned when inscribed on tombstones but not in obituaries that should be without bias, and truthful.
Memento mori -remember you must die. Without brooding over it, be prepared for it.The poet Asadullah Khan Ghalib put it beautifully , “Age travels at a galloping pace Who knows where it will stop? We do not have the reins in our hands We do not have our feet in the stirrups.“