December 29, 2004
 

In one of my more philosophical moods a couple of days ago, after the terrible events of Sunday, I was contemplating on how death is such a great leveller.

Those who died on the Marina beach included fishermen, vagabonds, rag-pickers etc. who either had no home to go to or were out doing their bit to earn enough for one proper meal a day. Starvation was pretty much a daily affair.

Among the others who died were well-to-do Madras-vaasis who had nice homes, were clearly overfed and had to get exercise. Starvation was furthest from their lives. They were at the beach for leisure. The former category was at the beach because there was no other place to go to. Yet death didnt discriminate. It picked on them all.

I heard on Monday that a couple of relatives on my paternal grandmother's side were among those who died. It made me wonder about, in a sense, how close we all are to death!

Labels: death