(If) Death comes to everyone one by one; why doesn’t life?

Last week...I lost a classmate ...not someone who i could say i was close to... nevertheless someone i knew. The suddenness with which this happened was quite shocking....made me think a lot. Am putting down my thoughts here.

He was so young…about to get married

There was so much that he should have done and experienced
He did not deserve to die so early

Early…what is early?
Would it have been better had he died at 50 instead
Is there an age when one can say that one has lived enough?
Is there an age at which people die and
those around them do not miss them or cry?

He had two young children
He had so much to give to them
So much to give to life…

What is life?
A string of events…. experiences…memories
Who decides what the length of that string is?
How many experiences have been apportioned to him?
Would it have mattered had he experienced 20 more incidents?
Would that have been enough…
Would one then make peace with his parting with life?

It was so unexpected…
Would it have been better had death announced its arrival?
Would you have been better prepared?
How does one prepare for the death of somebody dear?

Death is always momentous…it does not go unnoticed
When people die…there is a sense of regret
As long as they are alive….is there a feeling of elation…or even awareness
Why do people wait till the end of life to feel its absence?

If LIFE a feeling of being alive…
What is that feeling…can it be described…where does one feel it?
We live everyday…but how many times do we feel alive in a day…
Do we feel it even once?

If death is perceptible….why isn’t life?
(If) Death comes to every one – one by one; why doesn’t life?

The last line is the translation of a poem by Gulzar that appears in the book ‘Silences’

Categories: Reflections_ , Poems_