He was in his early 40s, living in Jaipur with wife,
two teenage sons and his brother’s family. Once his sickness got somewhat
serious, the family went to Calcutta to get him treated, a city they lived in
not so long time ago and for almost all their life.
In the aftermath, talking among each other, people
reconciled the death as a pre-written destiny. That, only so many breaths were
given to him. If he was to live, he would have been at the right place for the
right treatment.
Who is to say this is not destiny, and something
else, but I’d risk sticking my neck out and ask to take a longer look at it. I
wonder how often heart failure occurs for pre-written reasons. And if we just
think of it as the play of non-negotiable destiny, then we risk not learning at
all. We continue to live overlooking our body’s well-being.
Peoples’ health, measured by either of the
parameters - physical activity, weight, stomach flab, diet, etc. – are so
average -average being very poor - that we have come to depend a good deal on
doctors, as our internal life sustaining mechanisms continue to wither. And may
be being stuck in this predicament is then our destiny.
In issues of health and most things in life, what we
do ex-ante (before the fact) is more critical than things we do ex-post (after the fact), the very essence of the popular adage: Prevention is better than Cure.
Good Day, Shreekant
