Defining Death

 What is death? Donne called it "one short sleep". Well, i am not so sure that life, eh, its end, death, is so comfortably linear or teleological, I guess. What is death then? Our inability to never see, hear, touch, feel, be scolded, be loved to distraction  by the beloved person? The sudden pit in the stomach when life smacks you hugely in the face to make you realise this (hi)story is a chapter closed forever? That it can never be re-opened? Worse still, can never be re-written? Is death the wild despair that is born out of such total negation? What is death? Is it the tectonic regrets for the silly mistakes you committed, and now never can mend or make amends for? What is death? Your mom you fed a few minutes ago and washed the spoon and cup, and returned to realise she is no more? But she was there a few minutes ago. And gone! Then? What is death? Your father you talked to a few hours ago and you answered the telephone call about his accidental demise? What is death? It is not merely physical, though it is that, too. Something happens in your heart, in your soul. A huge vacant feel it is. Not really rituals? Though suddenly sur-really real they appear! Your logic, your reason tell you it is the entire ambience that makes you so vulnerable, but, no, there is that unmistakable call from somewhere you cannot define! What is death? A huge sob in the throat that catches, almost drowns, your breath? A space, a spectre that suddenly revealed itself, which you never imagined existed and yet was there very much? What is death? An event that turns all your belief systems upside down? What is death? The last attempt your friend's body makes to get up when someone says in 'her' presence that you are there? What is death? Well, it is something that dies within you, too. A point of no return. An utter loneliness that nothing ever fills. Well, death is forever! 

Pratima@ As death is thus so deadly, whenever life gives you a second solid chance, you use it utmost to make life better, more meaningful, more sensitised, and utmost sensible!