26 February,2010 08:52 AM IST | | Namita Gupta
Death can strike anytime, anywhere, and fills people around with grief. Nothing can be more painful than being around a loved one's death. But is life a tad better than being next to someone so close on the deathbed?
We all know the ephemeral nature of life and when we see a gruesome tragedy like the one at Carlton Towers on Tuesday, we realise that it can come knocking, even without a careless whisper.
I saw it at close quarters when my neighbour, Sidharth, all of 35, who worked on the seventh floor of the building died, leaving behind his wife, six-year-old son Dhruv and two-year-old daughter Nishka. Dhruv, who has been staying at his friend's house since the incident, has been telling his friends, "My father is dead," and refuses to go home. Sidharth had everything going for him. A lovely home, luxury cars, a well-paying job as the national head for an investment banking firm,u00a0 which required him to shuttle between Mumbai and Bangalore for work. Sadly, he had not packed his bags to head to Mumbai that day.
Just 10 days ago, I was with Sidharth and Monica at a home party on Valentine's Day. The couple danced celestially till late night. Who would ever know that it was the last dance of their lives?
Eight other lives were gone and we could be one among them. No, it didn't strike so hard, until it was 4 pm on Tuesday and I was shrouded with calls from hundreds in my contact list, asking if I was fine. My colleagues and I thought it was another small smoke episode and felt like telling our friends, "No, we're not fine. You're talking to a ghost," and we almost laughed out loud, unaware of the gravity of the fire. Within minutes, our ex-office building was covered in thick smoke, and we thanked our stars that we had moved to Museum Road.
That left me thinking about the heart of the matteru00a0-- the importance of afterlife. How do we invest in it? But on second thoughts, is there anything like afterlife? There are many philosophies surrounding it, but no one knows the real truth, which leaves me with the question, what am I doing with my life? When I deeply contemplate the transient nature of human life, I realise that, from beginning to end, life is impermanent like an illusion. How fleeting is a lifetime? So, I'd like to live my life sincerely. That's the least I can do with this bewitching thing called life.
