Friday, October 12, 2007

What’d you do before the end of the world?

Funny to think of it! I always used to ponder about such crazy stuff. Not about what I would do, but more about what others will! Never stopped to think about myself!

In a way it is gratifying that there are folks who think like I do and conduct surveys on that. The results are somewhat obvious. More than half of the people would want to spend it with their loved ones. And in a material world, it is surprising that 13% of the people have a hedonistic streak reaching out for champagne. Some want to eat and 9% would apparently have sex. And a meager 3% would pray. Maybe the rest feel that any which way we are marching to meet the Maker and why waste time thinking about Him in those precious 60 minutes left. Or maybe, all of us are aware that we have a bagful of sins that we can’t confess to, in just 60 minutes. Or maybe we are certain that there can be no amends at all.

I remember reading a sci-fi short story. Could be Arthur C Clarke I guess. Not very sure! It has a similar situation. And invariably people turn to love. Love for their neighbors, strangers and countries which had been fighting since their birth get together in a moment of reality.

It is strange about what people can do when they know that their time is out. There is a good piece about Bhutto’s last day by Kushwant Singh and he explains how once a suave but dictatorial person who had scant respect for the lives of people, turns maudlin when he knows that time’s up. Apparently in a rare moment of indiscretion he blurted out where the money was stashed and it was impounded before he was hanged. I have read about people while walking towards the gallows; carefully sidestep a pool of water lest their legs get dirty. But the common thread is that everyone turns stoical or religious. Suddenly remember God or their shortcomings, when it’s anyway too late. This is in contrast to the survey results. Maybe it is one thing to imagine a holocaust and tell what they would do and facing it is another thing. I would anytime go for the real accounts and not the survey.

Coming to think of it, what would I do? It is pretty blank to forecast. I don’t think I have any unfulfilled desire that I would want to pursue in those 60 minutes. Or that I would suddenly discover what I have not done so far. Maybe I have not called many people for a long time, not told them that I care. But in my own small circle, I have never missed an opportunity to display warmth and affection. I spend all my free time with the loved ones. Maybe for a change try calling up some lowlifes and tell what I think of them, lest they die with a grand thought of they being good. Few things that I would want to do will take more than 60 minutes, like turning out to be a great musician.

Incomplete things like the book that I had been trying to write will anyway find no meaning in completion. Had enough and more of beer in life, so I may not reach out for that. ( anyway who wants a warm beer as a send-off drink ) . I don’t think I will pray either. I see no meaning in that, when all I had been taught and known to pray is about everyone being well. When you know that none of them are going to be in existence in the next hour, there is nothing you can pray about. And there is nothing to confess for I have always believed in what I was doing at any time. I would not be scared either.

I have always been a hedonist in my life, so it is pretty difficult to think of what is left to pursue. The only thing I can think of doing is complete the book that I would be reading at that time. Why die with some suspense!!!

Come to think of it, looks like the running life is so full and pleasing and to realize that it takes a damned doomsday dream.

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