Among other things, an Eulogy for Puret-dai

It's 8:40 PM on a Friday evening and I'm stuck in front of a computer. I just finished plotting graphs for the umpteenth run of the data from the CO sensor, I'm tired, hungry and just want to phase out in front of the TV, watch something stupid.... maybe not something as stupid as the news, that chronicles the life and "achievements" of Anna Nicole Smith, a tragedy indeed!

It seems there's a party going on downstairs. I can hear ebullient laughter, helped on I'm sure by a few glasses of wine and a funny joke. I need some air, I'll continue after a smoke.

OK now that I'm back I have to catch the chain of my thoughts. Along with work, I also downloaded a movie, Sin City, from Vongo.com, but I think I'm gonna unsubscribe without watching the movie. It seems too dark and depressing. I wonder why movies are such a huge sell, just popular escapism I suppose. These days I feel it's been a waste of time and money after watching any movie or for that matter even regular TV.

Talking about depressing, news from home seem too depressing these days. War, protests, closures, black outs because of load shedding, shortage of everything skyrocketing prices.... the list goes on and on. Or maybe it's just the news. Life goes on with day to day rituals, people are born, die, get married, get a job, get fired from a job and the circle of life pretty much goes on.

Puret-dai passed away last week. For those of you who might remember, he was the phoke Puret who oversaw my marriage ceremony. He was also the guy who oversaw everything from my pasni to bartaman to my marriage. I suppose I thought that he would also oversee the pasni of my kids. Puret-dai was not family, but a permanent fixture in out old house, at Thamel. He pretty much conducted all important religious stuff that goes on in a bahun household. We would see him every saraddey, lakh batti, dashain, tihar and so on. He was a contemporary of my grandfather, and that makes him ancient. I think he was about 80 years old when he passed on. A long and eventful life indeed. He would smoke like a chimney, but I doubt that he ever had a taste of the som rus, unlike us - "dinbhari bown, ratbhari down". Bown and Down really do rhyme. About ten or so years ago, he was taken to the ghaat in Pashupati, but he came back. A true survivor. People still take their loved ones down to the ghaat, it must be a scary experience, even your loved ones giving up on your chances of survival. Personally, I hope that I die in my own house, not on some disgusting ghaat, next to flowing refuse on the banks of Bagmati.

Mid-nineties, our family was hit by a series of deaths. It even came to a point when I'd get asked if someone else was on line. Puret-dai did see us through all of those incidents. And a lot of ceremony and ritual is involved in a bahun death.

Being a Puret all his life, and in a way, dedicating his life to God, I hope he met his maker last week. It would be an irony indeed if there was no God, a persons dedicates all his life to God and when he passes on there is nothing but just empty void. That is a depressing thought. And perhaps one of the reasons for the pervasiveness of religion.

Well even if there is no God, I will say a short prayer for him tonight and may his soul rest in peace.