Obituary
written by: SmithaV
@SmithaVishwana4
I’ve started reading the pages at the end of the newspaper-
The one with the photographs-
Sometimes stamp sized, sometimes bigger
The faces look back at me
Some smiling, some solemn
But rarely ever sad
I wonder if they were truly as happy
or is it a one-off moment captured
and shared for strangers like me to see
I don’t read the date of birth or bother counting the age
But the words written, I read them carefully
Those that talk of remembrances, memories and love for the dead
And I read the names of the persons and their relationship
“Why do you care so much?”
I would say when I was younger
“Why do you read an obituary grandma?
It’s an incredible waste of money don’t you think
to put a photograph in a paper
That will end up in a bin
or reused by a street vendor
rolled up into a cone for packing roasted peanuts
or wrapping raw mangoes
drizzled with Himalayan salt and chilli from Kashmir?”
Granny would laugh
And simply say, ‘You’ll understand one day,’
and continue with her ‘past-time’ so I called it
head-bent and eyes squinting
‘Was she looking for someone?’ I often wondered
A lost love, a friend or a distanced family member
Decades later I found my answer
Browsing through pictures of people I did not know-
Who were here once, like I am today
Creating bonds and touching lives.
and making a difference to someone
That someone who now proclaims to all
Stranger or familiar, he doesn’t care
who reads it
He needs to share
that- ‘While life goes on, here was a man
who is remembered long after he’s been gone.’
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