I saw a dead body for the first time when I was in High School… If I remember correct it was when my Father’s younger brother passed away. But I never touched the body. I watched from a distance. It was probably also the first time I saw people gather when someone died. The sorrow.. the crying… the blank look in the faces of near and dear… The slow transition to normalcy in the few days after that… Everyone reaching normalcy at their own pace…

Then I also saw my Grandfather’s dead body… I was in the same ambulance that was carrying the body… I did not touch it… I remember feeling sad and also crying inside a bit…

Then it came real close when my dad passed away and I was in my 12th grade. I did not cry initially.. but then when we were in the vehicle taking the body to my ancestral home I sat next to his body and for the first time I touched a dead body…. I could not understand it completely… the ice cold body….

I remembered his warmth.. but the coldness when the life is no more there.. I remember breaking down then and there… that was after 24 hours of hearing the news that he is no more…..

Even today I remember clearly that differentiation of the warmth of life and the coldness of death…. both realities that we must all be accustomed with… And then another fact of life that…. life moves on for us and for others.. it should move on….

Categories: On Life

Tags: death, life and death