The Dying & The Bereaved

 

The Dying & The Bereaved

Many years after finishing School, I was suddenly contacted by a class mate who urged me to join in get-together of our batch mates. Having totally lost contact, I hesitated and evaded dozens of ‘Meeting’ invites with various improbable reasons. Cornered and tormented by repeated calls, I eventually attended my first class reunion.  Contrary to  expectations ,my classmates still retained their original personality . Only  physical appearances had changed due to age.  It was quite a friendly group .I began attending more reunion meetings and we even  met  our teachers a few times  and discussed matters related to the School. My proposal to the Group to involve & help out  in the School  Annual day extracurricular activities was well received.

We were the same set of members for many years, till we all got married & our children grew up. Yet we parents retained the bonhomie   and would occasionally visit each other’s houses. We had our own outings.

In short we strengthened our school day friendship.

Now it is many,many  years since we finished School. We have all gone our own ways. But our stint together evokes happy memories        .

Mostly!

One person who was a hero of our association was Nagendra Prasad. He was a jovial person, a prankster who could regale the group with witty anecdotes. A character who  could never be forgotten.

He and his wife would invite us home often and serve us scrumptious meals.  He was quite a windbag and could talk on any topic under the sun.

Two other girls (Oops! ladies) in our group Mrs.Padma & Mrs.Ratna were as witty as him. Together the threesome could  stir up a Laugh Riot with comical tales.

In time the group thinned out and scattered.  Some migrated to other parts of the state,country and world. The interactions  occurred far in between

 I totally lost contact with the group. Only Ratna made the occasional call mainly because her Brother’s birth date coincided with mine.

During one of her calls a couple of years later, Ratna informed that Padma’s Husband had died and that she had stopped  communicating with her & everyone else.

She informed that   Nagendra Prasad   had gone to a book shop one evening.and had seen Padma there. She was at the Spiritual/Philosophy section checking out on a book titled “ Life and after”, apparently immersed in her own sorrow.

He had wanted to go over and talk to her. But seeing the book that she  was reading, he had not wanted to intrude. He told Ratna that his “ heart had bled seeing her seek answers to questions, in the philosophy section of a book shop.”

Nagi himself had contracted a terminal disease . & was slowly dying.With extreme trepidation Ratna had broken the sad news about it to Padma earlier

Years  passed. One day Out of the blue, I received a most unexpected call. It was Padma. After exchanging pleasantries,  she poured her heart out:

She told me that Nagi  was  younger than her. It was unimaginable   that such an effervescent man as him, who was personification of life, was counting his days.

She wished she had visited him when he was sick. But she had no courage to see him     on his death bed.A few months later she had seen his obituary announcement in a newspaper.

“Whenever I see the book ‘ Life and after ’ I had bought that day at the book shop, where Nagi  had not wanted to disturb me, I think of him and all my dear classmates. I wonder if Nagi would have found out for himself  the answer” her voice trailed off.

Later, I called Ratna. I learned that Padma had called her too after a very long time. She had expressed the same things that she had told me.

The two phone calls, decades after parting with my classmates brought back memories of the happy,carefree student days. A deep yearning to meet friends kept gnawing at me.

This time around, It was me who made the calls for organizing a class reunion which for various reasons never happened.

 

 I often think about that disconcerting question and the answer still eludes me.

 

 “After life, what ? Is there Life After Death?’

    Is there??