Death: The Leveller

We see people dying every day. This should be enough to shake us up and learn the necessary lesson. But it does not happen, as we feel that this fate is only destined for others, not for ourselves.

An Air India plane, a Boeing 747, took off from Montreal on 23rd June 1985, carrying 329 people aboard, including the crew. It was bound for Delhi via London.

At Palam airport, Delhi, many people were waiting, as usual, to receive their relatives and friends. Some passengers were returning home after working hard at their studies or business. Some girls and boys were coming to India to get married. Still, others were to visit their homeland after a long interval to meet their near and dear ones.

Their happiness, however, suddenly turned into deep grief. While flying above the Atlantic, the plane met with an accident and plunged into the ocean off the coast of Ireland. When the list of the dead was put up on the board, the people waiting for them rushed towards it. At this moment, a reporter of the Hindustan Times (24th June 1985) captures the scene in these words:

“In their moment of stunned disbelief, each thought, ‘This could not be happening to me.’ Then, however, the death list shattered all their hopes.”

Leaving aside such significant tragedies, it is a fact of life that many people pass away from this world every day in the ordinary course of events. This fact should be enough to shake people up, but it does not because everyone who watches others disappear thinks this fate is only destined for others, not for himself. It is a strange but observable fact of human psychology. By excluding himself, he fails to learn a valuable lesson. He fails to hear the message of death even when it is close at hand.