A life more ordinary
Updated On: 17 August, 2025 07:06 AM IST | Mumbai | Paromita Vohra
We do understand about mental health that while darkness may be forestalled in different ways, it constantly lurks at the edges
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Illustration/Uday Mohite
I read about a Ghanaian man, suffering from bi-polar disorder, who, 9 months ago, announced on Instagram that he would end his life with medical assistance in the Netherlands. But before he did, he wanted to experience as much connection as possible. So, he announced The Last Supper project, where he hoped to have dinner with different people. An extraordinary number of people reached out to Joseph Awuah-Darko then to invite him for dinner and conversation. These dinners ranged from Happy Meals to a 6-course repast. Mr Awuah-Darko has a substantial Instagram following, comes from a wealthy family, and has not yet initiated his journey to euthanasia. Doctors are sceptical about whether he qualifies. And right now he has a stream of curated connections which make life worth it — he never said when he would do it. Reading the story, I didn’t feel quick to judge the meaning of Mr Awuah-Darko’s choices, despite their Instagram polish. We do understand about mental health that while darkness may be forestalled in different ways, it constantly lurks at the edges.
But I did wonder about what moved the dinner hosts to connect. Some had felt they could do a good deed, perhaps talk Awuah-Darko out of dying. Some warmed to him expressing what they felt but dared not say. Maybe, for some, it was the liberation of thinking about someone else, instead of themselves. Some felt he was offering something “real”, something offline.
What is “real”? That’s a question death, in its finality, poses, as much as life with its illusory infinitude. An untimely death, reconnects families and friends who have been scattered by the road to success. The air becomes thick with promises – we must keep in touch yaar. These relationships are the real thing. But almost immediately the drift away resumes. There is l always that one person, who believes the desire for the “real thing” is real, whose earnestness, only to be awkwardly rebuffed. People say, “it would have been nice, but it’s not realistic in the end”. What is that distance between the real thing and the realistic thing made up of?
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