At least 16 reasons why you should not take my death so seriously...

Such ego! To assume such seriousness! Nevertheless!

1. 😀
2. Cliche.
3. I know I am going to die. 
4. So do you. I mean that you know that I am going to die. And also that you know that you are going to die. But that’s a different topic.
5. Repeat 1, 2, 3, 4. Because some cliches need cliche repetitions. Death is always coming. No surprises there! We don’t know if I will become an engineer or a doctor or an astronaut or famous. But we know I will die. For sure. That’s all. Whatever horrendous/beautiful the cause, the obvious, the most well known, the most natural future of mine will surely happen to me. Death.
6. I don’t really want you to be in utter shock and extreme pain when I die. Among other things, I want you to also say things like- “Oh, Ruby is dead? That’s the expected outcome. OK!”
7. There are twenty thousand ways of dying. Old age, heart failure, organ failure, disease, chronic disease, accident, murder, rape and assault, abuse, starvation, war, terrorist attack, teenage firing, false target, doctor’s mistake, natural calamity, collateral damage, unknown reasons, fall at home, in sleep, dead and unnoticed for many days, … Just recall all those gruesome, shocking, normal, expected, beautiful, etc deaths that you know of. Imagine some more that you may not know of. I will die of one of those causes or some other extremely unique cause. Be imaginative, be prepared. OK, good. Now you are prepared! Well done! The bottomline- We have created this world in this way, hence these causes. I am going to go, this way or that way. Let’s not get consumed by the cause.

8. Sometimes when someone dies of some injustice, say, then the near ones feel things like- “Oh! I will make this my life’s mission to do something about it!” Even if I die of such causes, unless there’s some really really universe-calming effect, and if you are really jobless, there’s really no point in being consumed by the injustice or some such issue regarding my death. For example, if I die due to someone else’s mistake, then it’s OK, mistakes happen. We have created this world in this way. Also, mostly, the person would know their mistake deep inside. No need to make it your life’s mission to prove it, if it isn’t being easily proven. Please do not get consumed by this injustice. Forgive and mourn and move on and keep doing your jobs with care. If I die very beautifully or very heroically while saving the world (!!) then too, chill. Let’s try not to attach more meaning to my death than death itself. It’s the end. Let it be. Let’s try not to create beginnings out of it.
9. I am OK with dying anytime. Really. I won’t feel bad. So if I go abruptly, remember that I am OK with it. If I die young and ravishing (It’s no more possible!), cool! I know it’ll be terrible for you if you love me (again, such ego!), but please let the fact that it’s cool for me help you combat the shock better.
10. I have no unfulfilled wishes. Other than that of dying fit and fine and without making people sad. But isn’t that the cliche ultimate wish of everybody?! I will have to overcome it if it doesn’t get fulfilled! Working on it!
11. I don’t take myself very seriously. So I won’t take my dying very seriously. Trust me!
12. I work sincerely, but it’s OK. My unfinished tasks won’t stop the world and someone will finish them or do something even better. Also, I try to be mindful about making myself dispensable in the activities that I do with others, by including my process of working in the activity. (I bet you haven’t read a more bombastic way of saying “I am lazy!”) Finally, I try to be aware of the fact that at the very core of it, I do what I do to fill out my seconds, to boost my ego, to make my life livable. So, in that sense there’s no unfinished business as well, when I die.
13. For the same reason, when I die, don’t even change the course of your life to finish what I was doing. (Sometimes we feel so, out of love! But if you don’t, then cool! Don’t get ideas!) You are already making your world more livable. Please keep living what you have been living. Your life is your message. 
14. We are quite inconsequential in the large scheme of the universe. Cliche. But even beyond that, at the timescale of the Earth, life itself is meaningless. Species have lived and vanished multiple times. We might have, we will.(And yet, you still have to live through life till you die. So you live everyday sincerely and help make your world more and more livable everyday.)

15. If I love you and I know that you know that and if you love me and and you know that I know that, then we should just chill! 
16. When I die, I am going to remain dead for a verrrrrry lonnnng time!
17. I have one bank account. 
18. My death will be the end of my stress, my suffering, if any. Cool cliche.
19. What’s more, you will be free of my physical form!
20. When I die, I couldn’t care less!
21. Are you still taking it seriously??? Please don’t!
22. And please add if I missed anything…
23. 😀

If you are invested in me, chances are that you will be affected by my death. (Again and again, such ego!) But really, there’s nothing much to death than the fact that everybody dies. Cliche. The only sensible grief is that you will miss my physical presence. That’s the real pain. Another cliche. And as everybody knows, one heals over time. You will. Please do! Keep sleeping well, keep shitting well, keep exercising, keep eating less and less processed food. (However you parse the lesses! Lesser the merrier!) Or, if I have died of exercising and eating less processed food, then you would know better!

P.S.- I enjoyed writing this piece. And I did wish I shouldn’t die before I finish writing. And I didn’t. Die! Because I have finished. Writing!

हम सब एक हैं

 एकोप्याचा अर्थ काय? 

आमच्या कुटुंबात अनेक परस्पर विरोधी राजकीय जमातींचे लोक आहेत. स्वतःची मते परखडपणे जगजाहीर करणारे, मनातच ठेवणारे, वाद नकोत इतपत हळूच थोङेसे बोलून दाखवणारे, इ. सगळे प्रकार त्यात आहेत. अत्यंत अवघड ते अत्यंत सहज स्वभाव तर आहेतच. जगण्याच्या रीती वेगवेगळ्या आहेत, जाती वेगवेगळ्या आहेत, कामांचे स्वरूप वेगवेगळ्या टोकांचे आहे. 

एवढे वेगळेपण असलेली मोठी कुटुंबे बरेचदा बऱ्यापैकी विभक्त झालेली दिसतात. कधीतरी चांगल्या/वाईट प्रसंगात थोडावेळ हजेरी लावणे किंवा बाहेरच्यांसमोर एकी आणि मनात विष बाळगणे दिसते. एकमेकांची तोंडे न पाहणारी पालक-मुलेही-भावंडे मी पाहिली आहेत. 

ह्या पार्श्वभूमीवर आमच्या कुटुंबातील व्यवहार मला एकोप्याकडे झुकणारा वाटतो. 

काय असतो हा एकोपा? कसा दिसतो? 

एकोपा म्हणजे अनेक क्षमाशील लोक. पुन्हा पुन्हा नव्याने प्रेम करत राहणारे लोक. मतभेद म्हणजे माणूसभेद नाहीत, हे जाणणारे लोक. तुला अत्यंत त्रागा होणारे सामाजिक मुद्दे मांडत आज मी मोठ्या सभागृहात भाषण दिले तरी तो माझ्या आयुष्यातला मोठा क्षण आहे ह्याचे कौतुक तुला वाटावे लागते आणि त्यानंतर मला पाऊस लागू नये म्हणून घरी सोडायला तू वेळेच्या आधी सभागृहाच्या दारात हजरही राहावे लागते; हे समजणारे लोक. आपले नाते रक्ताचे, रक्त आत सर्वत्र आहे, फक्त मेंदूत नाही, त्यामुळे विचारांसोबतच सर्वांगाने एकमेकांसाठी सतत असत राहणारे लोक. 

आमचे आजी-आजोबा, म्हणजे डॅा. गणेश दामोदर सप्तर्षी आणि मंदाकिनी गणेश सप्तर्षी हे तसे लोक. त्यांनी स्वकष्टाने घरात पाडलेला हा एकोप्याचा पायंडा, त्यांच्या पुढच्या पिढीने उचलून धरला, त्यामुळे आम्हाला एवढी कौटुंबिक स्थिरता आयती मिळाली. कुमारकाकांबद्दल आम्ही सर्वजण ज्या पद्धतीने व्यक्त होत आहोत त्यातून आमच्या पुढच्या पिढीलाही हे जाणवत आहे. त्यातून कुमारकाका फक्त कुटुंबियांचे नसल्याने, आम्हाला आणि आमच्या पुढच्या पिढीला अजून एक मोठी गोष्ट जाणवत आहे- हे हजारो लोक जे कुमारकाकांसाठी येत आहेत, त्यात सर्व जाती-धर्म-पंथ-पक्ष-विचारसरणीचे लोक आहेत. नक्कीच ह्याचा आम्हा सर्वांच्या जाणिवे-नेणिवेवर असर होत राहील आणि आम्ही फक्त कुटुंबात नाही तर समाजातही एकीकडे झुकण्याऐवजी ‘एकी’कडे झुकत राहू. आहार-विहार-आचार-विचारांहून खूपच जास्त घट्ट, ऋणानुबंधाच्या गाठी बांधत राहू. 

Dear rationals

Does it even make sense to demand resignations?

What after resignation?

Should NEET or the present education system even exist?

What if this is all funded?

Is this BJP’s plan to mask something else?

Is there a greater game afoot which we cannot even imagine right now? 

Has Sonam Wangchuk been managed?

Why are they making it political?

What will come out of this anyway?

Good questions, dear rationals. Let us keep at it. 

But while we are at it, please let us try to enlighten ourselves by visiting a protest near us, or if that’s not very near, by watching the sea of protest footage by random individuals. Let’s install Instagram if need be. Let’s not watch any of our usual, famous, known people. Let’s watch footage from the protest sites uploaded by the people there. (We may also soak in the meme and reel rain intermittently.) Either visiting a protest nearby or watching this footage will take up about 4 hours of our time. And then… Then we think. That won’t take long, if we allow ourselves to.

Oh and by the way, we do this for us. They really don’t need us. We do this for our own enlightenment. Mainly to understand what’s possible in today’s world. 

Since we are actually going and experiencing a protest or watching a lot of unedited raw protest footage, simpler questions such as- which video is real and which one is AI, aren’t the protestors going violent and hitting the police, aren’t the police being brutal, why are facial records of the protestors being made, why are there plain-clothed police people, why are there police cameramen, etc get answered easily. So these questions aren’t listed above. More difficult questions like, is this protest funded, are handled beautifully by genZ reels, but if we don’t like to laugh out loud, we may get back to being our serious thoughtful rational selves-

Even if it doesn’t make sense to demand resignations,

even if nothing major happens after the resignation,

even if this education system itself needs reconsideration,  

even if this protest is funded,

even if BJP is masking something else,

even if there’s a greater game afoot which we cannot even imagine right now,

even if Sonam has been managed,

even if they make it political,

even if nothing life-altering comes out of this, 

what we experience in the actions of these youngsters (if you are visiting a protest) or what we see in the footage by lakhs of individuals is unignorably precious. 

The vibe is real. The creativity is extreme. This isn’t a serious-faced slogans-chanting agitation that we are used to. They are real and funny. They are angry and laughing. They are careful and cheerful. They are shaking the system and dancing. They are right and left, rich and poor, Hindu and Muslim, brahmin and dalit. Their speakers are announcing and telling the crowds to take down all other flags except the Indian national flag because they want no other ideology other than love for the nation and the crowds are happily complying. Their speakers are taking the mics away from other invited speakers if they are making provocative speeches and reminding the crowds again and again to protest peacefully, in a Gandhian way, without any violence. They are enjoying their part. Very seriously.

 

We, who have been trained so well about there being two things, and then about the two being opposite things, and then about the impossibility of their coexistence; can really learn a lot from this. And even if we don’t learn, the fact that this can happen, that it really happened, should be enough to bring us one step down from our pedestals.

With their lack of focus, short attention span, huge screen time; they are trying to crack the system, which includes us, by cracking jokes. We better crack open and laugh heartily and bask in their glory, or else… Or else we lose. We lose out on growing up. They don’t care. They’ll make a bigger joke out of us and move on.