Forever young
It was Sanjit I believe who broke the news to me that morning. I cant remember how i felt at that instant, it seemed unbelievable for sure. Without a moments hesitation Sanjit and myself we took off to the mortuary at AIIMS. Before that however we were seriously shocked at the callous attitude of a certain representative from the administration department. In hindsight we were actually not surprised as we expected no better. I remember reaching the morgue and seeing his father waiting to take delivery of his son's mangled remains...the boy's mother was not yet informed... I hugged the old man and tried to say a few words but i choked. The body was taken to the crematorium and the lifeless body of that bright young boy was placed on the pyre. I could feel my heart being ripped apart when the pyre was lit. No one said a word, just the wailing of a father punctured the evening silence...
I distinctly remember breaking down in front of my parents when i came back home. I couldn't imagine how an organisation could be so cold hearted, the boy was crushed under the wheels of a truck,a young life was taken,yet no one from the organisation bothered to show even a semblance of sympathy.
Worse was to follow. Back at the office the CEO didn't bother to turn up at the memorial meet. The admin decided to pay a few dimes to the family and be done with it...some of us would however have none of it. We put together a sizeable corpus and handed it over to the family. The day was the 28th of February 2011, the young boy was Amit Chauhan...
A year later, on the 28th Feb 2012, on a white board near my cubicle I wrote " Stay forever young. RIP Amit Chauhan"...someone came and whipped the board clean in a matter of minutes ... On 28th of Feb 2013, on my way to office I couldn't help my eyes moistening up as I remembered him. I am sure no one at the said organisation even remembered. They had already done their bit two years back and in true humane fashion "moved on"!
Why am I writting all this you ask? Well coz it had to be noted for posterity least I forget how I felt when the pyre of a young boy was lit and how not a word was spoken and how a father's wail pierced the evening to see his only son being reduced to ash. Least I forget how fragile a life we all lead.
"Stay forever young. RIP Amit Chauhan.
It was Sanjit I believe who broke the news to me that morning. I cant remember how i felt at that instant, it seemed unbelievable for sure. Without a moments hesitation Sanjit and myself we took off to the mortuary at AIIMS. Before that however we were seriously shocked at the callous attitude of a certain representative from the administration department. In hindsight we were actually not surprised as we expected no better. I remember reaching the morgue and seeing his father waiting to take delivery of his son's mangled remains...the boy's mother was not yet informed... I hugged the old man and tried to say a few words but i choked. The body was taken to the crematorium and the lifeless body of that bright young boy was placed on the pyre. I could feel my heart being ripped apart when the pyre was lit. No one said a word, just the wailing of a father punctured the evening silence...
I distinctly remember breaking down in front of my parents when i came back home. I couldn't imagine how an organisation could be so cold hearted, the boy was crushed under the wheels of a truck,a young life was taken,yet no one from the organisation bothered to show even a semblance of sympathy.
Worse was to follow. Back at the office the CEO didn't bother to turn up at the memorial meet. The admin decided to pay a few dimes to the family and be done with it...some of us would however have none of it. We put together a sizeable corpus and handed it over to the family. The day was the 28th of February 2011, the young boy was Amit Chauhan...
A year later, on the 28th Feb 2012, on a white board near my cubicle I wrote " Stay forever young. RIP Amit Chauhan"...someone came and whipped the board clean in a matter of minutes ... On 28th of Feb 2013, on my way to office I couldn't help my eyes moistening up as I remembered him. I am sure no one at the said organisation even remembered. They had already done their bit two years back and in true humane fashion "moved on"!
Why am I writting all this you ask? Well coz it had to be noted for posterity least I forget how I felt when the pyre of a young boy was lit and how not a word was spoken and how a father's wail pierced the evening to see his only son being reduced to ash. Least I forget how fragile a life we all lead.
"Stay forever young. RIP Amit Chauhan.
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