Final Conclusion By Saran Rai

Final Conclusion
By Saran Rai

There is a Kirati folklore about a quarrelsome, sharp-tongued woman who, unable to find pallbearers for her deceased husband, covered his body with a bamboo basket. Later, mushrooms sprouted from the corpse.

Truly, how many pallbearers does one have? Thinking about one's own death reveals the extent of one's popularity, as Dale Carnegie once suggested. But even then, after death...

I recall a forgotten death. My wife was in the ICU, caught between life and death. There was also a 77-year-old man in critical condition nearby. The doctors recommended dialysis to save him. But his sons refused. Instead, they put him on a ventilator, where he eventually passed away.

Dialysis!
Twice a week, four hours each session. If conditions worsen, it could be thrice a week! Taking the patient for dialysis, caring for them, and managing the burden while they lived—it’s all an enormous hassle. Waste of time and money!

Dialysis—a borrowed life! As long as the patient lives, they are a burden to the family. Choosing the funeral over dialysis seems more convenient.

Caring for the living, helping them, and respecting them takes more effort than attending a funeral. Attending a funeral is not only a way to pay respects to the deceased but also to gather pallbearers for oneself in the future.

Since a corpse cannot walk itself to the cremation ground and would otherwise decay and pollute the environment, dishonoring even the living, pallbearers are essential. That’s likely why the saying exists: “A procession for the living, pallbearers for the dead!”

They say the mind never grows old, yet mine seems to have aged, consumed by thoughts of death and pallbearers. Is this auspicious or inauspicious? Or is it simply the final conclusion of time and life?