DEATH : A FEAR

It takes a lot to show courage when you are helpless.

Death is the ultimate stage for us.  We don't know what will happen after this and the same might be the reason for the fear of people have of it.  No one wants to die.  Each and every religion, mythology or person has some belief that we have to pay for our sins after death. We'll be punished for the wrongs we have done during our life.  Neither people know what the punishment is nor do they know if such  a thing exists, but it still frightens them. All that is belief. If you have seen Game of Thrones then in the first season a character named Syrio Forel tells Arya Stark 'there is only one god, Death, and whenever it comes we say NOT TODAY.' No matter what your religion is, who you are,  death will come to you and your answer will be the same for death.

There are some people who are not afraid of death.  They enjoy what they have. Happiness is always around such people. They never complain. They never demand anything from life. I'll share a story of a person who enjoyed his life till his death and never worried about it. His name was Krishna, but people used to call him Kanha chacha or Chacha. There is a park where I live near my house, and it has a total of 19h houses around it. Each building is of 2 or 3 stories.

 Chacha's home was also one of them. He used to live on the ground floor of the house and on the above two floors were given to two families on rent. Chacha had 3 sons.  One of them died in an accident and the other two just didn't even bother to care about him. They used to send him 10,000 rupees to survive. In case of emergency people of the colony were always ready to help him. He was a hard working person. He had a shop in the main market in the city which was later taken by his eldest son. His younger son was a computer engineer.

I've heard a lot about Kanha chahcha from my family.  He used to run a small school for poor children. Along with this he used to donate 20% of his money to an orphanage. His children were not happy with this because now his children were earning and not Chacha himself. They left home and shifted to a new home.  So now he had nothing. He used to do gardening for his interest. He had stories about all the plants of the park.

Kanha chacha was alone.  His wife expired after giving birth to his youngest son, who later died in an accident. Chacha loved him a lot.  He was little disturbed after the death of his loved child, but later people saw great changes in him. He started living more happily. When someone asked him why he wasn't sad after his son's death, he would say 'being sad or regretting for something isn't going to make everything alright . My son lived his life happily and i should live mine more happily, and that would be better for me.' I was only a 12 year old child then. I didn't know how it feels when you have to loose someone from your life.  Now i don't understand how could Chacha live happily after all this. I have never seen him without a smile on his wrinkled face. That face was enough to tell how old he was. After all this he was living gracefully.

We used to play football or sometimes cricket in the garden in the evening time. Chacha also used to come there in  the garden and he had a group of older people of the colony. Old people talk too much, i saw this in their group. They (old people) have a lot to share but their families don't have time to listen so they share all of it with their age group only or they will pass their time by playing with some child. Chacha used to be our favourite umpire for our Sunday's match.  I still remember that white hat on his head.  His white kurta and payjama. He was always with the same dress. It was our diwali vacation then. We were playing that Sunday evening as usual and chacha was our umpire. We lost our first match against Deepak's team and i wanted to win the very next match eagerly.  Guardians of some of my friends were free because most of them were teachers and they had vacations too. So they were watching our match.

Everything was going fine but suddenly chacha fell down. I couldn't get what happened to him.  Everyone started running towards him. I was still clueless about what had happened. Sanjay uncle and Sumit uncle came and took him to the nearest hospital. By 9 pm almost everyone came to meet him. Sanjay uncle stayed with him in the night. And next day he was released. As i was told he had an attack of something. And the doctor told him to take care of himself.  He should not work more.  He should rest now.  And it was just tiredness.

After 4 days it was diwali.  Everyone was there.  Kanha chacha was near the table where crackers were kept.  He was taking care of them and some people were also there and they were talking.  After waiting for sometime i found him alone.  I went to him and asked "Chacha what happened to you?".  He said it was nothing but a missed call from god.  And he smiled.  I asked what he ment by that?  He said 'Piyush, you need not worry about such things which are out of your context.  You should study hard and be a great person because that is the only thing which can make this whole world on knees in front of you.  Everyone will salute you.  Go high, as much as you can.  Never look down else small attraction will not let you do what you were made for.' I asked him curiously 'Do you really think i can do something great?' He said 'of course,  anyone can do anything great if and only if he works hard. If you'll work hard you'll get your reward.' my next question was childish.  I asked him 'but chacha my classmates always tease me and they always show that I'm inferior to them. What can i do about them? '  He laughed and said 'If they are doing bad to you then they have to pay.  Even if god does something wrong with someone he has to pay for it and God's rewards are always great.  So let people do what they are doing and you should focus on yours.  Enjoy every moment you have. You never know what future has in it for you. (he gave me a fuljhadi) Now go and celebrate Diwali. '

That was the last Diwali i celebrated with chacha. He expired after 19 days of our that precious conversation. I remember it was 21st of Nov. I know he only motivated me just like he used to motivate every other child.  But i always kept those words always with me.  I didn't cry that day but his memories made me cry when I understood what he meant.  He was a fearless man. He always had a smiling face no matter whatever the circumstances were. He knew the exact answer to my question that what had happened to him,  but still he was not afraid of dying. He told me that even God has to pay if he'll do anything do wrong with you.  Event death would have hugged him for his fearlessness.

Rest in peace Kanha Chacha.