Black

As I was watching a Hindi cinema (Who the hell says cinema!? Apparently, I do!) called 'Black', two sentences caught my attention. In the movie, a teacher of a deaf, mute and blind girl is struggling to empower the girl. He, despite the girl’s fortuitous hard work, is stumbling on that path. Yet there are moments of inspiring success that dot their path as they continue towards their goal. So they decide to celebrate – with ice-cream! And he says, ‘’Life is an ice-cream Mrs. McNally. Enjoy it before it melts.’’

And that resonates with something sincerely simple and true within the very fabric of our reality, that you’re bound to smile at it with a certain pyrrhic sadness. Its truth lies in the impermanence of all things – whether it be the witnessing of an ice-cream slowly melting away in the soft warmth of a summer’s evening; or the withering of a human body that is slowly marching towards its inevitable demise.

So, if you ever wonder why someone marches to their certain death with an aura of peace and contentment, it is because a realization has dawned upon the person that all death is certain. And that is the essence of all enlightenment.