Rites of Passage

Surprisingly, the weekend turned out to be quite hectic. Saw Star Wars - The revenge of the Sith at PVR. Finally the saga ended. The movie was true to the star wars tradition, with brilliant visuals and unbelievable special effects. This was the link that connects the prequels to the sequels. In some ways its a bridge that connects two entirely different generations. People who watched the first episode of the sequel as teenagers back in 1977 are middle aged now. How bizzare!, the people who watched the sequels are older than the people who are watching the prequels. Kinds of distorts the temporality of things. Will miss Yoda, Chewie, R2 and C3PO the most.
Sunday was a very unfortunate day. My dear friend Ritu lost her father here in Bangalore. I, her brother and a few of his friends ran around making arrangements for the body to be flown to Port Blair. We had to transfer the body in an ambulance from Apollo to St. Johns Medical College. Was a jittery experience travelling with the body of a person I knew so well. We had to get the body embalmed at the St. Johns Medical College and Hospital and then arrange a hermetically sealed casket for transportation by air. I realised how expensive it is to die nowadays. As if the pain of losing a loved one is not enough, people have to contend with paying astronomical sums to get the proper paperwork done. At every stage of the process people were taking cuts and commissions.
I read a really nice poem on organ donation displayed on the notice board of St. Johns. It is by an American poet named Robert Test.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face, or love in the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has
caused nothing but endless days of pain.
Give my blood to the teenager who
was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his
grandchildren play.
Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist
from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my
body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
If you must bury
something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses, and all prejudice against my
fellow man.
Give my sins to the devil.
Give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me,
do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.
If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.