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Thursday, April 6, 2017

Epitaphs... The Dead Inside



Some one recently asked me, what would my epitaph say. Got me thinking... how do you sum up a whole life's experiences in two to four lines? How do you convey it all in 60 words or less? We live our whole life  looking, running, seeking and running some more. Sometimes towards experiences and sometimes away from them. How do you sum it all up?

Walking through the cemetery at the St. John in the Wilderness Church, McLeodgunj... I couldn't but help think of that.

Every time I visit any cemetery, be it the South Park Street Cemetery in Kolkata or any other... I always make it a point to stop and read the carvings on each and every tomb. It's a surreal feeling. When I was 15, I was moved by one such grave of a little girl who died at the tender age of 15, exactly the same age as I was then. Now I am 40, however she is still 15. Successfully stopping time. Managing to stay forever young. While I grew up, enriched with experiences, some beautiful, some bittersweet...

Every grave has a story to tell, yet those laid there must have had so many more stories and dreams and aspirations that were buried with their mortal remains. The epitaphs on their tombs don't even begin to do justice to who they were.

I stop to look at few more, some who died in action in some war, some of old age, some when they were merely 10 days old. Laid to rest by their families, almost a century back. Now gathering dust...A grave also hosts the unfulfilled dreams of all those who wait patiently for a visit from their loved ones, for a candle to be lit...a tear to be shed. Hoping that someone, somewhere is remembering them....

I go back home... still wondering what my epitaph would say?

Her who dared to dream, here lies she,
The dreamer of dreams, from strife is set free.
Finally her wings are at rest, after her flight,
Her caravan has parked for the eternal night.