The other day, a friend sent me the link of a blog from the Asom Times. It was written by a close friend of the late Ranjan Das, CEO of SAP India, who passed away of cardiac arrest in October 2009. The blog was personal, touching and left me with a twinge of sadness. Das' story was that of the meteoric rise of a middle class boy to the corporate blue-eyed boy. A story of grit and brilliance. At 42, Das was clearly not yet at his peak in terms of his professional achievements and had loads of things to be done on his unfinished agenda. It is anyone's guess what he would have scaled had he still been around....
Actor-Director Shankar Nag died in a tragic road accident more than two decades ago. Nag,in his time, was a brilliant director (we all remember the televised Malgudi Days, dont we?), and had in mind his baby, Rangashankara, a centre intended for promoting theater amongst all age groups. But, when fate struck, wife Arundhati, bravely fulfilled her late husband's dream. Today, Rangashankara stands tall in South Bangalore. The point here is Shankar Nag was set to do a good many things which were abruptly curtailed by death. It was well known that he was a restless, ambitious, creative man who would have worked wonders had he been around.
Indian's former premier, the late Rajiv Gandhi too is another example of a promising life cut short by fate. Gandhi dreamt of the Telecom and IT revolution for India way back in the 80's, and took giant steps to get our hitherto traditional economy well on track with the world. He was young, handsome to boot, and had won many admirers all over for his diction, his charming smile, amongst many other endearing qualities. So, even while mainstream media was divided in its opinion about his capabilities as a politician, he was scoring many points elsewhere, with the able support of his close coterie and his wife, Sonia. May 21, 1991 signaled the end to one of India's most charismatic leaders. There have not been too many ever since.
The recent Carlton Towers tragedy in Bangalore, footage bits of which local TV channels aired relentlessly, really wrenched my heart... young people jumping from the building in blind panic and meeting their end was tragic, to say the least. Open the city beat of any daily and one would see reports of deaths -natural and unnatural. It takes one second for us to cross over from life to the unknown. A cousin once narrated an incident that happened in his home town some years ago. On a sunny afternoon, a holiday, while he was enjoying time out with his friends and was crossing a particular highway service road, he witnessed a brother duo being run over by a speeding lorry in a matter of seconds. The friends later found out that the deceased were muslims : It was Id that day... Celebrations would have turned to mourning at the boys' house that day and for several years to come...
Death is a truth that we all know but often do not want to talk about; we prefer to go into denial. We go on with our lives mechanically like we have taken immortality for granted. It is about time we acknowledge the ephemeral nature of our existence, live by the day and stop planning endlessly for a future we cant be sure of being alive for. It aint so easy? We could do better by asking some of the survivors of terror attacks, accidents and others who have had close shaves with the moment of truth. Their numbers are many; they would agree with this, I am sure.
Actor-Director Shankar Nag died in a tragic road accident more than two decades ago. Nag,in his time, was a brilliant director (we all remember the televised Malgudi Days, dont we?), and had in mind his baby, Rangashankara, a centre intended for promoting theater amongst all age groups. But, when fate struck, wife Arundhati, bravely fulfilled her late husband's dream. Today, Rangashankara stands tall in South Bangalore. The point here is Shankar Nag was set to do a good many things which were abruptly curtailed by death. It was well known that he was a restless, ambitious, creative man who would have worked wonders had he been around.
Indian's former premier, the late Rajiv Gandhi too is another example of a promising life cut short by fate. Gandhi dreamt of the Telecom and IT revolution for India way back in the 80's, and took giant steps to get our hitherto traditional economy well on track with the world. He was young, handsome to boot, and had won many admirers all over for his diction, his charming smile, amongst many other endearing qualities. So, even while mainstream media was divided in its opinion about his capabilities as a politician, he was scoring many points elsewhere, with the able support of his close coterie and his wife, Sonia. May 21, 1991 signaled the end to one of India's most charismatic leaders. There have not been too many ever since.
The recent Carlton Towers tragedy in Bangalore, footage bits of which local TV channels aired relentlessly, really wrenched my heart... young people jumping from the building in blind panic and meeting their end was tragic, to say the least. Open the city beat of any daily and one would see reports of deaths -natural and unnatural. It takes one second for us to cross over from life to the unknown. A cousin once narrated an incident that happened in his home town some years ago. On a sunny afternoon, a holiday, while he was enjoying time out with his friends and was crossing a particular highway service road, he witnessed a brother duo being run over by a speeding lorry in a matter of seconds. The friends later found out that the deceased were muslims : It was Id that day... Celebrations would have turned to mourning at the boys' house that day and for several years to come...
Death is a truth that we all know but often do not want to talk about; we prefer to go into denial. We go on with our lives mechanically like we have taken immortality for granted. It is about time we acknowledge the ephemeral nature of our existence, live by the day and stop planning endlessly for a future we cant be sure of being alive for. It aint so easy? We could do better by asking some of the survivors of terror attacks, accidents and others who have had close shaves with the moment of truth. Their numbers are many; they would agree with this, I am sure.
Very thought provoking piece! We never know when death lays its icy hands or any personal tragedy waiting to strike and therefore we should live by the day and live happily. I was not a believer of this theory even half a decade ago. I lived in the future that is all perfect. Little did I realise that as I was busy making plans for the future, destiny had other things in store for me. All of a sudden life changed for ‘good’. Now I know living in the present is not as difficult as many think. Just that a few learn it naturally and most take a while to master the art. I am still learning to and it may take a while to master it though. With the relentless support of my family and close friends, living by the day is no longer difficult… and I must say I have started enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteBravo!
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