The good die young, I wish this thought could make people feel better. But it’s not comforting for the mother who looses her child, the sibling who loses his closest friend or the wife who has to raise her kids alone. How senseless life is!

My youngest Uncle (Mama) was not even forty when he passed away, leaving behind his widow with three children. Four years later, his elder brother not even fifty passed away, leaving behind, his wife and three kids. It’s unbearable the enormity of that.

A friend of my brother’s passed away. I must have met him not more than ten times. But he was volatile and sarcastic, like I am, so we had conversations that were a bit off. Ofcourse he had much nicer qualities than I do. I did end up attending a lot of weddings on my brother’s behalf. I never thought I would be attending funerals, too. You feel as if you get over pain caused by loss but the minute you see someone experiencing the same thing, bam, the feelings just overwhelm you. Also when you’ve been suspecting, there’s something in your breast and someone has just died of cancer, you feel a little bit more, than you should.

You also notice, what happens to the people around. All the relationships we are so busy maintaining, half of those people don’t care. It’s just the closest one’s, who needs us, who are actually shattered. In the olden times, people were less practical. So there were rituals after rituals, which ensured the family wasn’t alone, someone was with them. People gathered around you, to distract you and to help you heal. Those were simpler times…better times.

In Kashmir, even now, if anyone in the neighbourhood is sick, people will pay them a visit. If someone dies everyone just automatically comes to pay their last respects and then they remember the departed in their prayers. It seems a bit much, for us practical folks. But I like the Kashmiri ways, they take care of their own. Anyway, I took a pic of his to remember him by.

That’s all you can do, pray for them, their families, and feed the poor, hoping your karma makes their journey to wherever souls go, easier.