Akhand Singh

That Night!!
In the dark silence and the dark night, the sky was black and the stars were dimmed. There at the end we stood, waiting for the ceremony to begin, around us there were a number of groups who perhaps shared the same motive as we did. Slowly with time the darkness emerged to lessen and the cynosure of years appeared more clearly. The body was still alive and the expression on the face marked his presence. Some minutes were gone with the blink and ceremony started.
The body was taken to the holy and pious river and it added purity to itself when it touched the body. Then it was the time to move for the enlightment. The body was carried by its lovers and the devotees that marked some great spark every where around. As always the light is accompanied by the darkness the same way there were things which were sacrilegious. The whole ceremony turned unholy when the mourning were heard to be turned into boisterous laughter of some selfish people. These were the same people whom this dead body brought up and it was not a pain for moment but sacrifices and determination for years, to bring them up. Things were to turn worst and I was to witness each and every moment that turned my life and changed the flow of my cerebrals.
We took the body to the bed of woods amalgamated, to go ahead with the burning ceremony. Darkness was hiding behind us as the sun started to climb up and with its soothing rays we felt the warmth in that cold night. There are definitely some marvelous epics about this place but that day it all proved to be wrong and I saw the ultimate reality of our lives. Now, it was the time to burn the body and to enlighten the soul, the elder son of the family was called to give his efforts by putting fire to the wooden bed. Minutes later we realized that the woods were damped and the fire was unable to play its role. The mortician uses husk to let the body urn but still it wasn’t the way the ceremony should have been practiced.  At that time money was playing its role and I realized how selfish people are? And that too in case of a family member, it was a shameful predicament and the guilt of being there and even a human being hurts my mind and my soul.
By the grace of god the body did caught fire and people prayed for the enlightment of the soul. Till the time the sun climbed up a little more and the darkness entered our soul, when we observed how the fire was burning the skin and the bones. The hanging legs, the uncovered face and the darkening of the chest were all very difficult and painful to witness. It brought tears and contrite my body with soul when I recalled every moment I spent with the great body and his great soul. He was my grand father and will be the same forever. I played in his arms and he gave me the support no body else can give. It is him who gave support, shelter and care to a great mass of people but today, where they are? And what happened to their everlasting emotions? All faded with money? Are they dead? These all questions trouble me and they will keep troubling till my last breath.
I was confounded when I wasn’t able to notice tears in their eyes, and when the mortician beat the body with his stick and broke its leg then why the hell no body raised his voice?.
That day I got aware of the truth behind every lie, I saw people collecting the burning woods for cooking their foods; I saw them and their mechanical, dead-pan faces with no tacit of sadness.
I saw the relatives who were not concerned that they stood with the body who helped them stand. I saw people who behaved as cicerone in front of that dead body and they had no emotions. Is this what we call religion? If yes then I don’t obey it and I have no religion. I have no family and no relatives. I am not a human and not a living soul “I am dead”.
The ceremony went as a formality and till date I hear the boisterous laughter and the mechanical faces still make me sad. It turns to worst when the uncovered face and the broken hanging legs appears in front of me in the flames when I witness the burning woods.
That night was a night mare and I am guilty of being a witness. I never imagined that people can behave like this, but I saw it and today I am guilty of living and being alive.

Still I pray for the enlightment of the soul and I pray for its peace and a sense of apology is there in my heart to witness such a deadly ceremony.