It’s just a little overwhelming, I tell you... three deaths
in a spate of 4 months. Although, I wasn’t really attached to my relatives who
passed away, it’s still disconcerting. On my Birthday, on Jan 28th,
my brother was on the way back from a funeral in Calcutta, that of my second
paternal Aunt. Granted that she was old and suffering from ailments just like
the others that went after her, she actually (physically) missed attending her
grandson’s wedding slated to happen three weeks later.
Among us, the first card is sent to Lord Ganesha. Once his emblem
is imprinted, the wedding cannot be postponed. And as it so happens, these
days, weddings are handed over to the planners. So everything was going on as
per plan. Okay, and during this wedding, on the ladies sangeet, just before the
ring ceremony, another aunt’s husband, my phupha ji suffered a heart attack in
front of us. He was taken to the hospital where he passed away. The death was
kept under wraps as the wedding muhurat is sacred and the next day was the
wedding. That happened somehow. Everyone got dressed and attended. The body was
cremated the next day, as the wedding guests dispersed. The last rites were held
at the deceased’s house in another town.
We had gone to Calcutta after a long time to attend this wedding and I had taken a
cotton nighty for my ‘nanDhi Amma’ (younger amma, as in, my grandma was ‘amma’).
She was happy. I hope she wore it. Her daughter, Rita di asked her to put her
hand on me as I knelt down near her bed and give me blessings. She was my ‘taayi
ji’, my father’s elder brother’s wife. She passed away three days ago. Today,
was the ‘pagRi rasm’ at a Gurudwaara, a prayer- meet.
May the deceased rest in peace.
My brother is there in Calcutta, as are probably most of our
relatives. It is also Vivek’s Birthday today. God bless us all.
