The unfathomable coronavirus attack is
turning the world upside down! Yet we need to survive – we need to keep
reinventing our idea of life and continue to rediscover ourselves.
Predictably, everybody has own unique
feelings about the situation - fear of catching the virus, anxiety over the
unknown, concern the food supply will run out, fear of the consequences to the
economy and employment, frustration at wanting to help others and not being
able, boredom, and irritability.
Apart from thoughts like above, at
several occasions during this lockdown, I have found myself asking - will we
gain something from CoVID experience?
An absurd reality – life is not about
collecting people for funeral
During this lockdown, we heard how Nepalis
in America have died lonely, in hospitals and houses, with not even close family
and friends willing to perform or attend their funeral. The body of a migrant
who died from coronavirus in Dubai was kept in a morgue in case a friend came
by for a last goodbye. After a week, no one had appeared. In silence, four
people at the morgue, wrapped the body in a plastic bag and took to a furnace
where it was reduced to ashes. Just last week, two stupendous Indian actors,
Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor, died – not due to CoVID though. They had the
stature to attract a large funeral procession. Yet, it didn’t happen.
Perhaps they didn’t need it! May be
none of us need it!
All their life, many people are
addictive of the idea that the presence of people at their funeral will tell who
they have been in life. In their attempt to collect as many people for their
funeral, they cease to live their lives. They inadvertently become people-pleaser.
People-pleasers without boundaries and they simply turn into doormat without
personality. They are so nice to everyone because they believe that
everyone would be nice to them if they are nice to others. There’s an
expected outcome for being nice!
I have seen people faking grief at
funerals. I have come across people who shed crocodile tears. What Irrfan Khan
and Rishi Kapoor’s funerals and many funerals of those who died of Covid have
taught us is that we don't need to collect numbers for funerals. We just need to be humans, have empathy for life of others, live life on own terms and be
ourselves.
The moral of the story is don’t simply
live to collect people for your funeral. Don’t simply go out of way to become
people-pleaser.
Whatever we do, the
matter of fact remains -
“लास जलिसकेपछी मलामिले खरानिको
वास्ता गर्दैन, निको
भएपछि घाउले मल्हमको वास्ता गर्दैन!”
Nice one.. 👍👌
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