ELSA ONLINE GOOGLE MEET
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Mujhse ek kavita ka vadaa hai milegi mujhko..—Gulzar
[O death! You're a poem.
I've been promised a poem, it shall be mine.
As the pulse (of life) recedes, the pain
& suffering go to (an eternal) sleep
And a yellowish (young) moon starts to rise and reach its zenith
The day is yet to sink in water, as the night waits, nigh, to the shore
It's not dark, it's not bright
it's neither midnight nor high noon
And as the body loses material, the free soul gets seeped with (fresh) air
The poem has (fulfilled the) promise of being
mine!]
Prof.
Nibir Ghosh opened the meet with the recital
of Gulzar’s poem ‘Maut Tu Ek Kavita Hai.’ The poem figured in the movie Anand
in which the protagonist Anand, a cancer patient, reveals how a dying
man could have such a wonderful zest for life and happiness. The poem portrays a vivid description
of life being delicately balanced on the verge of Death. Yes! ‘DEATH,’ which is
considered the most oblique and potentially dark issue, was the theme of
discussion in the recent ELSA meet held on 26th July 2020. The topic
of the meet was ‘Treatment of Death in Literature.’ Since nothing could offer
insights into death, dying and mortality so effectively as
literature does, one could argue that death is a familiar subject of literature.
While
providing fictional encounters with death to its readers, the stories
also use death in their narrations to create emotional effects, plot
twists, suspense and mysteries in multiple ways. In this light Dr. Ranjana
Mehrotra recited few lines from Dylan Thomas’ masterpiece poem “Do not go
gentle into that good night”. She
appreciated the poem for its most
redemptive power— both in its universal
message and in the particular circumstances of how it came to be in the context
of Thomas’s life. The theme of death and the dying was taken further by other
ELSA members one by one highlighting the pervasiveness of the theme in numerous
works of art throughout the ages. Dr. Chanda Singh in her presentation
talked about the many appearances of death as a person incorporating different
poets. Dr. Anindya Sundar Polley explored the matter of death by observing how murder is portrayed in
literature and its cultural conception. Presenting his views on the topic ‘How
Connected are we to Murder,’ he analysed
murder as a plot that involves a broken taboo; a violation of natural,
religious, or human law; sin, punishment, guilt and redemption and also
explored in depth how with all these perennial characteristics in abundance, it
serves as useful grist for the literary mill.
Dr.
Lisha Sinha looked at ‘The Depiction of Death in
Children’s Literature.’An audience that may not have a full understanding of
such an oblique and potentially dark issue. She pointed out that literature
aimed at younger audiences often utilizes animals as a way of portraying the
first fundamental presentation of death. Prof. Nibir Ghosh took the
discussion further escalating the intensity of the theme by referring to Spanish
Civil War which was commonly viewed as the dress rehearsal for the Second
World War, the war which also had mobilized many artists and intellectuals to
take up arms, on the side of the Republicans. The youngest member of the meet, Mrigakshi
Singh, aged 8 years spoke on the topic ‘Who is More Powerful: Life
or Death?’ Ms. Anjali Singh deliberated on the theme of death in Albert
Camus’ The Stranger and highlighted how the protagonist of the novel
responds to the death of his mother and at the end reflects on his own
impending death. Sheikh Shamshuddin from Kolkata examined the ‘Attitude
towards death’ referring to Emily Dickinson’s ‘Because I could not stop for
death’ and Tagore’s Bangla poem ‘Jhulan’ (the swing). Saurabh Agarwal presented
‘Keats’s Approach to Death’ sharing his insightful ideas on how John Keats
mused in his poetry about death with nostalgia, longing and release from pain. Dr.
Shrikant Kulsreshtha explored the theme by diving into the depths of
Hemingway’s phenomenal work The Old man and the Sea. Dr. Ashok Bandla
reviewed the elegiac poem ‘Death of the Celebrated Divine’ by Phillis Wheatley
reminding that poetry is more than mere philosophy. Mr. Nihal Singh Jain,
whose stories narrated at the ELSA meets have morals and messages that are
always powerful, shared a short story written in the form of a diary ‘Diary of
a Dying Man’ giving personal account of the protagonist’s confrontation with
death during his quarantine period in the face of Covid-19 and his sense of
bereavement. The story ends on a positive note with a message ‘how to stay
positive during personal crisis.’ Dr.
Manju analysed the theme deeply in her presentation on ‘Death, A Lost Warrior in Dylan
Thomas's “And Death Shall Have No Dominion.”’ Dr. Geeta R. Sharma made a
presentation on The
Tibetan Book of Living & Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.
Towards the end of the meet, Prof. Ghosh shared his personal reflections on death and the members were encouraged and given the opportunity to share their individual perspectives. Prof. Ghosh concluded that one has to take an attitude like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, when he had some misgivings about the duel with Laertes. Prof. Ghosh quoted Hamlet in these words: “Hamlet thinks that God is in control of everything, even something as small as the death of a sparrow. He says that if death is supposed to come now, then it will. If death is supposed to happen later, then it won't happen now. However, the important thing is to be ready for it. None of us knows anything about what we leave behind us when we die, so does it really matter if we die late or early? We must make peace with it: “Readiness is all.”
Conclusively Death is a significant and inevitable part of life. Extensive discussion and reflection on the theme of Death revealed that some authors give personal accounts of their impending death or their sense of bereavement; some use literature to structure and order our thoughts about death; and some treat death as a literary device, using it, for example, as a symbolic representation of the decay of society. The final take away of the meet from prof. Ghosh was the recitation of lines from the phenomenal poem ‘O thou the last fulfilment of life’ by Rabindranath Tagore:
O thou the last fulfilment of life,
O thou the last fulfilment of life,
Death, my death, come and whisper to me!
Day after day I have kept watch for thee;
for thee have I borne the joys and pangs of life.
All that I am, that I have, that I hope
and all my love have ever flowed towards thee
in depth of secrecy.
One final glance from thine eyes
and my life will be ever thine own.
The flowers have been woven and the garland
is ready for the bridegroom.
After the wedding the bride shall leave her home
and meet her lord alone in the solitude of night.
Chanda Singh
Death has been
personified in Art and Literature for ages. Mankind has always exhibited a
morbid obsession with the abstract, invisible phenomenon of Death. Giving it a
human form helped transfer it into an abstract pattern. Personifying Death and
giving it a human form made the thought and experience of Death less terrifying
for the average person.
In ancient Greek
literature Life was perceived as Feminine and Death as masculine. Thanatos, an
angelic winged youth is Death, and he is the twin brother of Hypnos, or Sleep.
Death, thus, is eternal sleep. The personification of Death gained immense
popularity during the Dark Ages in Europe under the rule of State and Church,
creating awe and respect for Death. The popular ‘dance of Death’ described in
literature and enacted on stage with skeletons rising from their graves was a
chilling experience
Death,
personified, is presented as either gentle and friendly or as remote and cold. It
was often given an hourglass, and even an apprentice or helper who could be in
the form of an animal, as for instance a horse. The most oft repeated
personification of Death is that of a Reaper, scythe in hand, ready to cut
short a life.
References to
the Kingdom of Death in the Old Testament suggest the personification of Death
as King or ruler. In apocalyptic writings Death is a horseman who kills people.
John Milton personified the concept of Death in Paradise Lost. Sin
springs from her father, Satan, who rapes her to produce a son, Death. Thus
Death is the product of an evil deed.
John Donne
addresses Death as he would a person in his poem, “Death be not Proud.” The
poet argues against the power of Death because it is controlled by forces
greater than itself: “Fate, Chance, Kings, and desperate men.” Its undesirable
companions are “Poyson, Warres, and Sickness.” Further, both “Poppie and
Charmes” are its rivals. The poet makes Death subject to human weaknesses and
even declares: “Death, thou shall die.”
John Keats, in his ode “To a
Nightingale,” confesses to the bird on a
fragrant summer eve that he has been “half in love with easeful Death,”
and called him “soft names in many a
mused rhyme.” Robert Browning’s “Prospice” presents Death as a mysterious form
lurking in the shadows, a powerful adversary
ready to bandage his victim’s eyes as the snowy blasts begin. But the poet,
ever a fighter, is not afraid of this last and best fight. In “Because I could
not Stop for Death,” Emily Dickinson personifies Death as a gentleman of great
civility who comes in a horse drawn carriage to pick her up. He is accompanied
by Immortality. And, thus, Death is made acceptable, even pleasant, by
presenting it as a lover courting the poet. Speaking of times closer to us, it
is interesting to note that several of Hemingway’s old characters are viewed as
personifications of Death.
Dr. Chanda Singh, former HOD English, RBS College, Agra.
Dylan
Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night”
Ranjana
Mehrotra
Poetry
has the power to stir our deepest emotions and poets have always written about
death in many ways. Few poems furnish
such a wakeful breaking open of possibility in a more powerful manner than this
very famous rapturous ode to the unassailable tenacity of the human spirit by
the renowned Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (October 27, 1914 – November 9, 1953).
This beautiful poem was written in 1947 and went on to become Dylan Thomas’s masterpiece. It was published for the first time in the Italian literary journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951 and was later included in his 1952 poetry collection. It remains Thomas’s best known and most beloved poem as well as his most redemptive – there were many reasons for it – the first that it conveyed a universal message – the starkness of death and the emotional surcharge that emanates after death and secondly the circumstances under which it was written that occurred in Thomas’s life.
Between 1945 and 1948 Thomas made hundred broadcasts for BBC ranging from poetry readings to literary discussions and cultural critiques. At the height of his radio celebrity days, Thomas began working on “Do not go Gentle into that Good Night.” His broadcasting experience had instilled in him a keen sense of the rhythmic sonority of the spoken word so he wrote a poem that was tenfold more powerful when channelled through the human voice than when read in the contemplative silence of the mind’s eye. It has often been suggested that this poem was written for Thomas’s dying father although he was alive till Christmas 1952. Yet it inspired him to write this beautiful poem that has served as a dirge and obituary since the time it was written.
Igor Stravinsky, the composer used it for tenor and chamber ensemble in 1954 for ‘In Memorium Dylan Thomas’. Since then it has been continuously used – by rock bands, in music albums, in movies like Cristopher Nolan Interstellar in 2014 and was read by Iggy Pop in his 2019 album Free. His untimely death in 1953 at the young age of 39 left a void that could never be filled.
Dr. Ranjana Mehrotra, HOD & Associate Professor (Retd), Department of English Studies and Research, BDK Mahavidyalya, Agra.
"On the
American Dead in Spain" (1939) by Ernest Hemingway
Nibir K. Ghosh
As the title of the story indicates, Hemingway’s
account revolves around the deeds of soldiers from the Lincoln Battalion who
took part in the Spanish Civil War, fought during 1936-39 between the Nationalists
led by Fransisco Franco and the Republicans supported by the International Brigades from 50 countries trained by
Comintern in Paris. Fransisco Franco ruled as a dictator from March 29 1939
until his death on Nov 20, 1975. The Spanish Civil War, which was considered a
dress-rehearsal for the Second World War, brought into the fray enthusiastic
young supporters including writers, artists and poets from different parts of
the world. Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937), “Spain 1937” by W.H.
Auden, “Letter from Spain” by Langston Hughes (1937) and For Whom the Bell
Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (1940) are some of the celebrated works that
glorified the Republican struggle in Spain.
In the story, "On the American Dead in Spain," Hemingway pays a glowing tribute to the patriotism of the soldiers who died fighting for the noble cause of freedom and were buried in a mass grave near Jarama in Spain. What draws one to the story is the narrative filled with lyrical intensity of emotions: “The dead sleep cold in Spain tonight. It was cold that February when they died there and since then the dead have not noticed the changes of the seasons.” Death is associated with coldness of the winter but Hemingway makes it evident that as part of the regenerative cycle of nature, life returns in the form of memories of the deeds of the dead as spring replaces winter: “For our dead are a part of the earth of Spain now and the earth of Spain can never die. Each winter it will seem to die and each spring it will come alive again. Our dead will live with it forever.”
Hemingway asserts that their sacrifice will not go in vain because “The Spanish people will rise again as they have always risen before against tyranny.” Like poets who imagine that death is a journey that connects us to eternity, Hemingway too is optimistic that the soldiers have entered the arena of immortality: “Our dead live in the hearts and the minds of the Spanish peasants, of the Spanish workers, of all the good simple honest people who believed in and fought for the Spanish republic…The fascists may spread over the land, blasting their way with weight of metal brought from other countries. They may advance aided by traitors and by cowards. They may destroy cities and villages and try to hold the people in slavery. But you cannot hold any people in slavery.” At the end of the story are words that are offered as a tribute to the glory of the martyrs: “Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality.”
The story reminds me of the principle of regeneration that P.B. Shelly celebrates in his poems “Ode to the West Wind” (‘If winter comes can spring be far behind?’) and “Adonais” (‘The One remains, the many change and pass’).
The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying by
Sogyal Rinpoche
Geeta R Sharma
This book takes us to an unknown journey – a full circle from life to death to a new life again based on Tibetan philosophy of living and dying called Bardo. The author proclaims “I want every human being not to be afraid of death or of life. I want every human being to die at peace, and surrounded by the wisest, clearest, and most tender care, and to find the ultimate happiness that can only come from an understanding of the nature of mind and of reality.” He raises his voice “We spend millions of dollars every minute on training people to kill and destroy, and on bombs and planes and missiles. But we spend hardly anything in comparison, on teaching human beings the nature of life and death, and helping them when they come to die, to face and understand what is happening to them.”
Further he suggests “It is crucial now that an enlightened vision of death and dying should be introduced throughout the world at all levels of education. Children should not be ‘protected from death, but introduced, while young, to the true nature of death and what they can learn from it. Why not introduce this vision, in its simplest form, to all age groups? Knowledge about death, about how to help the dying, and about the spiritual nature of death and dying should be made available to all levels of society; it should be taught, in depth and with real imagination, in schools and colleges and universities of all kinds, and especially and most important, it should be available in teaching hospitals to nurses and doctors who will look after the dying and who have so much responsibility toward them.”
I,
myself had some such experiments with my father and ultimately he embraced a
painless and peaceful death few years back.
Dr. Geeta Sharma, IQAC Coordinator, Pt. DDU Govt. Girls Degree College, Sewapuri
Death, A Lost Warrior in Dylan Thomas’s “And Death Shall Have No Dominion”
Manju
Death
is unseen, unheard and inexperienced. No one has come back from the region of
death to unlock this riddle and this is the cause why it gives a new height to
the imagination of poets. Various poets have portrayed death in various ways. Dylan
Thomas finds death a lost warrior. For him death which strives to control
mankind cannot do so despite being so powerful. Mankind has the power to stand
up against any of the evils of death, and become unified through their moving
to the next world. Death does not divide but it brings all those who lived
apart together:
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead
man naked they shall be one
With
the man in the wind and the west moon;
When
their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They
shall have stars at elbow and foot;
It is believed that Adam and Eve who once lived there in Eden were unaware of sorrow as they were free from the chains of death. When they disobeyed God by eating the fruit of knowledge, they were thrown on the earth where something very furious was waiting for them and it was death. Death was introduced in their life as a punishment for their sin and this may be the reason why sentence to death is still the worst punishment. But when Jesus Christ rose from his death as he was resurrected after 40 days of his crucifixion it seems as if the curse is over. The long battle between death and life has come to an end and life got the triumph. Now Death can be seen just as an explosion of energy when our soul becomes free from body and unites with the cosmos.
Dr Manju, Associate Professor, UILAH, Chandigarh University
Death
as the Ultimate Reminder of Impermanence
Roopali
Khanna
“Dry your tears,
my friends, and raise your heads as the flowers
Raise their crowns
to greet the dawn.
Look at the bride
of Death standing like a column of light
Between my bed and
the infinite;
Hold your breath
and listen with me to the beckoning rustle of her white wings.” - Kahlil Gibran,
The Beauty of Death
What topic can be more unpopular than death? How do people write about death and dying? Especially if you have ever lost a loved one, the topic can trigger a magnitude of emotions. Such a topic is the ultimate buzz kill. Yet poets and authors frequently exhorted their readers to think about their mortality:
“For thee, who, mindful of th'
unhonour'd dead,
Dost in
these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance,
by lonely contemplation led,
Some
kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate…”
– Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard
Literature can provide us with ways of approaching death and imagining it from different perspectives. Some literary genres (elegies, lamentations) are intentionally written as reactions to the loss of a loved object or a person that act as consolation to those who are suffering:
"How long did I slap your
corpse-face
to drive a
summer into its ice?
Forgive me.
But, O,
Enkidu,
how am I to
know myself without you?"
— from Gilgamesh, translated by Derrek
Hines
At one end of the scale there are the sometimes embarrassing but often deeply personal and profoundly felt lines on gravestones or ‘In Memoriam’ columns ‘She faltered by the wayside and the angels took her home’. At the other end of the scale, there is death in literature, for example King Lear's lament over his dead daughter, Cordelia. In the 20th century, however, Edward Bond wrote a version of the Lear story which was bleaker than Shakespeare’s original one, precisely on the grounds that Shakespeare was too optimistic. One of the central things of which literature can make us more aware is that death means different things at different times. This extraordinary scene concludes great literature makes use of death for its own purposes. One of the central tasks of literature is to impose a structure on life and death, giving meaning to both. Indeed, literature as a discipline aims just as certainly as science does to understand the world in which we live and to interpret our own role as participants in the human condition. Contemplating death is a deeply constructive practice. In addition to helping reconcile us to our own death, such contemplation also teaches us how to live, how to work wisely with impermanence, how to see that loving and letting go are the same thing, how to practice deep acceptance, and how to get our priorities straight.
Death, as the ultimate reminder of impermanence, helps us live our lives more richly. The worst that can possibly happen to us turns out to be the only guarantee, so in a way we have nothing to lose. We can most truly live in harmony with the truth of mortality by noticing all the impermanence already happening to us.
Dr. Roopali Khanna, Guest Faculty, BDK PG College, Agra
How Connected are We to a Murder?
Anindya Shankar Polley
The act of murder is found amply in our history, mythologies and in literature. Murder is culturally contingent and carries the potential to reveal truths about human existence. However cultural conception of murder and this disparity depends upon the philosophical and metaphysical basis of a particular culture. For example, in Christian thought, only humans have souls and therefore murder relates only to the slaughter of a human being. By contrast, in Hinduism, a soul resides in all living creatures and the concept of murder is therefore far broader.
Secondly, even almost every religion considers murder as a sinful act. However religions also advocate the act of murder when it is committed for the destruction of evil. Similarly, when the law gives the power to a hangman to execute the capital punishment on a ‘criminal’ or when a country admires the ‘bravery’ of a soldier in the battlefield and recognizes him publicly for killing ‘enemies’ in the battlefield, it thus legalizes his action; it takes a selective moral stance or it intentionally overlooks the ethical perspective of the act of killing.
Certain cultural formations are also contingent on murders and homicides. We live in a society where the act of homicide has become a mainstay of popular entertainment: we appreciate our favourite superstar in celluloid when he/she kills his/her rivals. This celebritification of the serial killer can be seen to have transformed the killer from a folk devil against whom citizens can unite. As for example London’s serial killer Jack the Ripper, got an immediate sensation in media and achieved the celebrity status despite his brutal ways of killing.
It is also really interesting, how the products we use, the words we speak, the garments we wear, which altogether construct our cultural atmosphere, also been heavily influenced by murder. Knowingly or unknowingly we let it happen. For instance, Nike, the famous shoe and garment brand’s enduring “Just Do It” slogan is based on the last words spoken by infamous serial killer Garry Gilmore, on whom Norman Mailer wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction Executioner’s Song (1979). This example speaks the needful about our cultural obsession with death.
Anindya Shankar Polley, Munger University.
Treatment of Death in the Works of John Keats
Saurabh Agarwal
The phenomenon of death was deeply intertwined with the life of
John Keats, the English poet, who himself died at the age of 26. In this short
life, he wrote some masterpieces which assured him of immortality. He witnessed
the death of his father at the age of eight, and afterwards, death became a
frequent visitor to his family. He saw his grandfather, his mother and brother
being taken away. When he himself contracted tuberculosis, he could read his
own “death warrant”. Thus the shadow of death looms large in his works. In a
poem from the beginning of his poetic career titled “On death” (1814) he
expresses fear that death will not let him realise his true potential as a
writer and he may not live to see fame and glory. Another of his work titled
“When I have fears that I may cease to be” (Composed 1818) expresses the regret
of the pleasures of life he may have to forgo when he is no more in the world
as it can be seen in these lines.
“When I behold, upon the
night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a
high romance,
And think that I may
never live to trace
Their shadows, with the
magic hand of chance;
His famous poem “Ode to a Nightingale” finds him deliberating that
it will be better to choose death as it will liberate him from earthly pain
when he writes, “Now more than ever seems it rich to die, / To cease upon the
midnight with no pain”. Not only in his poems but in his letters, death emerges
as an essential player in his life as he waits for the inevitable. In a letter
to Fanny Brawne, to whom he was engaged, he wrote: “I have two luxuries to
brood over in my walk, your Loveliness and the hour of my death. O that I could
have possession of them both in the same minute” (25 July 1819).
He had the realisation that death will cut short his journey to
fame of which he is capable of so he wrote to his brother George Keats that it
is “a mere matter of the moment – I think I shall be among the English Poets
after my death” (14 October 1818). His fear is evident on his gravestone, with
the words “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” The epitaph, which
Keats requested on his deathbed, reflects Keats’ anger with fate, as his works
do. But in a short span of life, he gave us the poetic works that have assured
him a place in the literary world which among Shakespeare, Milton and
Wordsworth.
Human Concerns and Ideal life:
“An Elegiac Poem on The Death of Celebrated Divine
Bandla
Ashok
The
poem is on eminent servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George
Whitefield by Phyllis Wheatly, “An Elegiac Poem on The Death Of Celebrated
Divine” published in 1772. It brought International name and fame to the poet.
The poem is in single stanza divided in three parts. The first stanza opens
with the philosophical saying of happy saint to acknowledge the human concerns
of George Whitefield. The poetess commemorates George as a noble and unconcerned
to the sorrows and complaints of life. Because of the happy saint’s sudden
demise the sermons disappeared to the world. It is an irreparable loss to the
world. The human beings are unhappy to digest sorrow of the setting of the sun.
Once George Whitefield was shining in the world but the death made him
disappear in the world. He had left the world to the unmeasured heights of the
heaven. The second stanza represents Whitefields’s contribution to the American
society. His Philanthropic and Samaritan nature build the brotherhood among the
people and whites and blacks with love and charity. He loves America more than
his native land to reform the destitute and depressed Americans. He wants
through the prayers to excel America and its youth to achieve great heights. He
is the son of God to show the right path to all the human beings. He urges Africans and Americans to take him
as saviour. If the people choose him as their saviour they will be sons, and
kings, and priests to GOD. In the third stanza, the poetess concludes with the
reminiscences of the Whitefields’ attachment with Americans and British in their service. What can
Americans return to the servant of the God. Death is a cruel messenger but God
preserves him with divine power.
Bandla Ashok, Assistant Professor, Dept of English, Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Death in Albert Camus’ The Stranger:
Comparison of Meursault’s Mother’s Death with his Own
Anjali
Singh
In the
novel, ‘death’ occurs three times – Beginning, middle and towards the end. Written
in two parts, the first part is a first person narrative of Meursault. He
appears to be an honest man who believes in the philosophy of ‘Live and let
live’. In an odd twist of circumstances, he is drawn to commit murder. Part II
is the proceedings post the second death; includes the trial that follows –
contrasting ‘existence’ with ‘aliveness’ (of Meursault). ‘Aliveness’ marked by
the many ‘first times’ such as
· An
urge to cry because he could feel the hatred of people in the courtroom; which
he believes is ‘stupid’.
· Realizes
he is guilty – in retrospect of his behaviour post his ‘Maman’s death.’
· His
desire to kiss a man because he (the man, Celeste) gives a statement in the court in favour of Meursault.
Proven
guilty and waiting for his execution he undergoes a transformation. Fear grips
him and replaces memories of good time when he was a free man. This is followed
by the acceptance of the inevitable death, the end of life and the monologue
justifying the acceptance. Chaplain who visits him is unable to influence him
but is instrumental in triggering rage and an ‘offloading of the heaviness’ he
feels. Finally, at the dawn of the day of his execution,
he remembers his mother. This is the most powerful moment according
to me: “For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman. I felt as if I
understood why at the end of her life she had taken a ‘fiancé,’ why she had
played at beginning again. …So close to death, Maman must have felt free then
and ready to live it all again….Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her.
And I felt ready to live it all again too….” Ultimately, proximity to death
infuses life and joy in Meursault.
I believe
that death is a reality that should be accepted. The exception is ‘untimely death
or unnatural death’ that puts a lot of question mark and is hard to accept,
sometimes, never accepted at all.
Looking
at nature, what is born must die. Beginnings have ends. The idea is for life to
begin again. The cycle goes on. Nothing lasts forever. Death itself is also a
beginning of a life force in another world.
Anjali Singh, Ph.D. Research scholar, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra.
Depiction
of Death in Indian Children’s Literature
Lisha
Sinha
It
is no wonder that adults always have a tendency to conceal the ghastly and
painful reality of death from the juvenile minds of children. So, when someone
dies, there is often repeated excuse that the person has become a star in the
sky or has gone far away and will be back very soon. But this same concept
becomes a herculean task for the literature to deal with especially by the
children literature. However, in Indian’s Children literature there are perhaps
different ways through which the dark concept of death is gradually infused in
the young minds.
In Panchatantra the anthropomorphized animals while teaching the “wise conduct of life”, carefully break down the concept of death to children. One, the death of an animal is the child’s initial exposure to death which allows the child to undergo the same normal stage of anger, fear, regret and sense of loss like the story in The Loyal Mongoose. Secondly, death is presented as a punishment for a mistake or a sin and thus acts as warning against wealth and worldly pleasure and seeks security within his own heart upon his moral character like the story in The Elephant and the Sparrows.
While in Thakurmar Jhuli (Grandmother’s bag of Stories), the classic collection of Bengali Folktales for children deals death as a case of ‘suspension of reality’. There is innumerable use of fancy and imagination yet it ponders on ‘the restoration of life’ which in case of evil is irreversible and in case of good there is always a chance of coming back to life in the form of plants, trees, stones, angels and such others like in the story of Suorani and Duorani. The purpose is to diffuse the tension of death by directly confronting it and rejoicing at it. Even the greatest fear of being orphaned is carefully handled where there is warm approach of acceptance of death and complexity of life.
Deducing from above, firstly it is necessary for the child to know that like the fictional world, the real world is equally dangerous for the unprepared. Secondly, instead of turning away from their queries it is responsibility as adult to show the child that way of death is a natural process. And thus let the children be raised with the realization that death is a part of growing up.
Lisha Sinha, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Guru Ghasidas Central University, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.
Who is More Powerful – Life or Death?
Mrigakshi
Singh
Death: I am more powerful because
I take away lives.
Life: No, I am the strongest
because I give lives.
Death: But I take away lives from
you.
Life: Sometimes, I stop you too.
King of Life and Death
(COVID-19): I am voting for both of you. Who votes for life?
All the dead people raised their
hands in the court.
King of Life and Death
(COVID-19): Who votes for death?
All viruses raised their hands.
The Wise Old Man (who had voted
for ‘Life’): I will ask two riddles to each of you; the one who answers
correctly will be said to be more powerful.
All agreed.
The Wise Old Man: Here is the
first riddle – What stays where it is when it goes off?
Life and Death (Together): A Gun!
The Wise Old Man: Correct. Next
Riddle – If you have three oranges and take away two, how many will you have?
Both thought this was tricky but
they could answer it because they were smart.
Life and Death (Together): Two!
The two you took
The Wise Old Man: Correct.
King of Life and Death
(COVID-19): It’s a tie. Both win.
Mrigakshi Singh (aged 8 years) is a student of Shri Ram Centennial School, Agra.
