Life and death

Recently, my Paati passed away. When my mother reached their house, the doctor said that out of the four beats of the heart, there was one. One feeble heartbeat was still there!

My Paati had refused to go to the hospital. An act that accepts death as inevitable, that refuses lifestyle changes of the kind imposed by an extended hospital-stay. My Paati brought up four children all alone. She lost her husband when very young. She worked hard. Her life is an example of strength and courage. She had a love for the good things of life and always enjoyed them to the fullest.

I have saved plants that had lost leaves and were on the verge of dying. Its strange that life is talked about as something that leaves and regains. 'Matte jeeva tumbikoluttade' one would say of plants in Kannada. Wonder what revives them!

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