I always feared to write on this. May be because this is something I never wanted to recall. the very idea of a cafeteria welcoming the hearse at the threshold of a mortuary seemed unnatural and rude to me. The chill that bled down my spine due to the tragic news of sudden demise of two of my college boys had overhauled the gelidity due to appalling water droplets that breached the hot skies of September summers by no less than zillion folds. The entire college stood there with hazy eyes and frozen body…shocked and silent. And amidst that silence, there would be intermittent cries. The accident had taken place somewhere around midnight and none of us in the worst of our dreams would have imagined that the early morning and the day to follow would be spent standing in the mortuary premises. I don’t have the heart to get into what went inside for 24 hours with families arriving and wailing and neither would I get into that.
I had noticed this cafeteria in the morning itself and felt uncomfortable at the sight of people eating , smiling and gossiping right in front of the m –gate. just then I saw a hears car stop and I shut my eyes. Another hears arrived and it meant another abnormally long blink. The entire day in the premise witnessed the most horrifying sounds play and replay, the most frightful scenes play and replay, as if life had come to a standstill and the pause had located itself at the end of all lives, marked by the arrival of hears and soulless veins.
And as the canopy of dusk spread all around, we realized we were tired standing there the entire day, someone suggested that we could perhaps sit somewhere. And the most suitable place that came to our mind was the cafeteria outside the mortuary. And slowly all of us walked out and dissolved into the crowd at the café place. after some silent moments, we slipped comfortably into our chairs…sipping tea. And within few minutes every table had some topic being discussed..forthcoming exams, recent vacation breaks, birthdays ....
The last hears car of the day stopped. I did not shut my eyes. hardly any one of us did. that pause and standstill had melted away in a day. we had become used to the horrendous reality of life and all it needed was one day. I looked at the owner of the cafeteria as he smiled with every order placed. He must have researched so well to look at the profitability of the place and the requirement of an eating spot outside mortuary . I was seeing another basic reality of life , the one embroiled in practicality of human needs which extends before and beyond emotions. And suddenly the cafeteria outside the mortuary started making sense to me…
I had noticed this cafeteria in the morning itself and felt uncomfortable at the sight of people eating , smiling and gossiping right in front of the m –gate. just then I saw a hears car stop and I shut my eyes. Another hears arrived and it meant another abnormally long blink. The entire day in the premise witnessed the most horrifying sounds play and replay, the most frightful scenes play and replay, as if life had come to a standstill and the pause had located itself at the end of all lives, marked by the arrival of hears and soulless veins.
And as the canopy of dusk spread all around, we realized we were tired standing there the entire day, someone suggested that we could perhaps sit somewhere. And the most suitable place that came to our mind was the cafeteria outside the mortuary. And slowly all of us walked out and dissolved into the crowd at the café place. after some silent moments, we slipped comfortably into our chairs…sipping tea. And within few minutes every table had some topic being discussed..forthcoming exams, recent vacation breaks, birthdays ....
The last hears car of the day stopped. I did not shut my eyes. hardly any one of us did. that pause and standstill had melted away in a day. we had become used to the horrendous reality of life and all it needed was one day. I looked at the owner of the cafeteria as he smiled with every order placed. He must have researched so well to look at the profitability of the place and the requirement of an eating spot outside mortuary . I was seeing another basic reality of life , the one embroiled in practicality of human needs which extends before and beyond emotions. And suddenly the cafeteria outside the mortuary started making sense to me…
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