On Life and Death

As we live on earth we see it full of life all around. Sometimes when you stop noticing it life will brush against you and show its omnipresence. So will death.

Death is as much a reality as is life. Yesterday I wished an old friend on birthday and the email reply was "Saurabh my father passed away on 1st December". It took me a while to comprehend and think of what to reply. I cannot imagine how my friend will be feeling at this point and whether there is anything I can say to make feel better. I am very bad at handling such situation. If I remind death is reality of life that would just seem harsh statement. I cannot ask them to forget their loved ones. I cannot make them stop being sad by cracking jokes. All I can do is just talk to them and offer my help if any.

I cannot stop wondering how sometimes facing death would let us appreciate our lives and how much we should be thankful just to live to see another day. It comes as a stark reminder of how futile our attempts at so called future planning may be. And how our sense of 'ownership' of things we 'own' is more ephemeral than we thought. As they say - Kafan mein jeb nahi hoti (Shrouds do not have pockets).
So the eternal truth still remains that all things must pass. A while ago I posted something after my cousin died and I can't help but re-write the same thing:

"Only certainty in the life of one that has been born is death. All other events have only finite probability of occurrence"