The other day I was going to buy a TV,
accompanied by my childhood friend's daughter, Drashti who is just seven years
old studying in second standard. While we were passing by Indira Gandhi bridge
near Ramnath Para, I showed her the chimney-pot of the crematorium emitting
black smoke and asked her, "What is that?"
"It is Chimaney-pot of some
factory." Said she.
I veered my bike towards the gate and
asked, "Now tell me
what is this place?"
She saw the big statues of lord Shiva
and heavenly apsaras and without wasting time replied, "Oh! It's the
crematorium. I'm dying to see it from inside. I've told my dad for umpteemp
times to take me there."
I temporarily postponed my plan to visit
Sony Tv's outlet and we went inside. I showed her electric crematorium first. It
had an embossed wall painting depicting the various stages of life from
childhood to old age when a man becomes quite feeble and is ready to die. There
were some people chatting idly here and there. She understood what black smoke,
that the chimney was emitting, was.
Then we visited the part of crematorium
where bodies were cremated with logs. There were four grilled beds for the
cremation. I told her those who don't choose electric crematorium, they came
there.
While we were loitering, watching other
idols and prayer-room etc, I noticed Drashti had slipped into a plaintive mode.
I was just about to ask her why she kept
a mum when she said: "I would never like any of my family members to leave
me and get cremated."
I thought I should say some comforting
words after exposing her to such facts of life, so I said, "You know,
death is inevitable. People die when they are old and feeble. We cannot help
it. That is a natural phenomenon."
"Yeah, true. Don't young people
sometimes die and leave us, all of a sudden? Considering that it's natural that
people die at old age...!!!" Said she
And I stopped walking, scratching my
head and wondering, "Was it she that spoke those worldlywise words!!! Or
some spook transported into her body was uttering those words to
me!!!...?"
:-) :-) :-)
