Value of Human Life!

It is almost three hours past midnight. I have begun completing my work. Fortnight back one of my friend lost his father. He had a massive heart attack. I have known the friend from the time we were in school. We spent around three years with one other and by that time our families begun to know each other well. This is somewhere in 1985 or so. Well that is about twenty five years. I have known my friend’s father since that time. Time of childhood. I remember how he would come on his scooter to drop that friend. That used to be so routine those days. If I just closed my eyes I can see those gardens of RKC so well. That gate which is still there – yes a time of 25 years has passed. Fortnight back I had received the news. All those days flashed before my eyes when I had seen his father full of energy.

I had last seen him at the Ram Krishna Math. He was looking pale and dull. He had lost almost all that energy. Twenty five years changes a lot. But then in the speed of life we forget. In fact we have no time to peep back into past. Why should we? It is always a good idea to live in present. There makes little sense in looking back at the past.

A generation that has raised us has begun to go. Some of them at least have started moving toward eternal while, we have moved on into the youth full of ideas and life forward. Perhaps some cycle is simply repeating. The biological clock is moving. We too are.

Today night when I had just finished my work, these thoughts of my friend arose to my mind. Well it was not that I was too close to that friend or too attached with his father. But there certainly was one connect. That connect was with my childhood and my having seen that gentleman since 25 years or so.

In the whole picture of those days, I remembered how my father and his father would speak to one another, how his parents would come to my house and spend that half an hour or so chatting about different things in life.

My friend is indeed too busy to think about all this. I too am. But, when there is time to retire to bed, these things strike. In a flash of five minutes hundreds of thoughts pass over the reader in mind and lot of pictures flash through. These are a mixed feeling of emotions, memory and identification of self with people and in turn evaluating the feelings and reactions.

My friend had called me up. He had few questions about the Letter of Administration and Order of the court he could not understand. He was busy taking inventory of the fixed assets, bank balances and all those physical things that had financial value attached to them. I had given technical answers to the questions that he had put to me.

In our region, we have a system of “Besna”. It is a sort of gathering where people mourn over death of deceased. It is thought to be a gathering of people who shared emotional values with the family of deceased. But that is not so in reality. Here the gathering has no connect. It is rather a sort of social ritual that most of those who attend follow with no heart in it.

It is the family or close emotional and spiritual relations that suffer upon a death. No body else gets bothered. In gathering of observances post death, people talk of business. People refresh old contacts. If there are funeral gathering of a politician or some highly placed individual, these gathering become discussion place of who succeeds next.

It is simply like those herds of wild bison moving. One dies and the others take no notice of it. Yes, there is one difference. Bison does not leave assets behind, human does. So now the question is about distribution of property, who will get what share and so on. The lawyers get some more clients. That is the value of life and memory in most of our routine affairs that are like dry transactions. Here life is nothing more then a balance sheet or a profit and loss account statement. Relations are evaluated on these terms. If an influential man dies, thousands of them accumulate. Not to share the grief but to show the face and register presence. Perhaps some day if there is some need, the contact can be “used”.

Value of human life is so subtle here. It does not matter how nice a man who passed away was. It does matter, what was his position, and status. Recently relative of some royal family had passed away at Bhavnagar. He had called Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai on the occasion of Besna through Amar Singh (cash for vote man). In deaths, there is a competition. How many people attended whose funeral? Here is a right time to show muscle, power and strength. There is a savage feeling of gratification in being able to call people. More the number, better it is! Then the question is who came.

Recently University’s Vice Chancellor’s mother passed away. There were hundreds of people who queued up to attend the Besna. The Vice Chancellor happens to be old friend of my father. I had an occasion to attend that Besna. There were about 4000 people. But same culture prevailed. Little was the affiliation of those who attended with the occasion. More was a race of registering presence. I could see mobile phones ringing. People postponing schedules, boasting on phone that they are in the mourning observance of Vice Chancellor. Some talking about business. Some talking about politics, local issues and so on. Hardly 1 per cent of them actually involved.

What hypocrisy are we enduring!!!

I think that is the way of life. It has to be accepted. We have no choice, No choice for people who think or believe otherwise. In a gathering of blinds, a man with eyes is abnormal. Same is the case with a gathering of logic bounded humans, here human as human is abnormal.