Accidental Eulogy!

Last week was different...I had my first experience with death. For the first time in my life I watched the cold business that happens after the life leaves the body and the body then joins the earth...ashes to ashes. It was the death of a relative and I was more of a dutiful escort to my parents than really a willing participant. However since I was making the journey, I realized I was more sincere than I thought I would be.

I had a preconceived notions on the soul that passed away. He was not necessarily my favorite. I thought he was after money, not getting it the right way all the time. He used to talk about himself. A bore I thought! Of course he was, what seemed to me, not a man with right moral fibre. So when I saw him make his final journey, I was hoping there would be some handful of people to hang around to say good bye. The last journey is lonely and you don't want to be doing it alone right?

But what I saw was revealing. There were many people who came in from all walks of life. A caring boss who put out a full page advt for an employee and agreeing to pay for all the final rites. Many people from the weaker sections whom this man had helped in any of ways to navigate the corridors of government. A lot of relatives for whom he was the pillar.

I did learn that day that one dimension does not make a man. And as many things in life, Gray is the color of life, not black not white. As I saw him make the last journey tears welled in my eyes.
Tears of sadness and tears from humility...Learning one more lesson in the journey of life.