Over the Edge
“A thoroughbred professional and a dashing, innovative manager with fire in his belly and ideas in his mind–an astute general.” It was in such glowing terms that an official journal described Mr. P. V. Venkatashawaran, the chief marketing engineer of a certain government organization.
On May 29, 1982, an important meeting was held on the eighth floor of the Gopala Tower building. Mr. Venkatashawaran had obviously displayed those natural talents for which he had been so justly praised, for when the meeting was over, he emerged, flushed with the success of the decisions he had pushed through, and, talking with great enthusiasm to his colleagues, began walking briskly towards the gates of the lift. These being open and his mind still being on the happy turn of events at the meeting, he stepped over the threshold of the lift without noticing that there was no lift there. He stepped straight into the empty lift shaft—the lift was still at the ninth floor—he fell down eight storeys and was killed instantaneously. The irony of it was that his personal doctor had been with him at the time, but there was absolutely nothing that the doctor–or anyone else–could do for him, except declare him dead.
At the age of 51, and, at a moment where his career had seemed at its brightest, his life had been snuffed out without warning—a unique and poignant tragedy, that is, in terms of everyday life. But from the point of view of the hereafter, the manner of dying, although extraordinary and horrifying, is irrelevant; for death, its point in time, its circumstances, accidental or otherwise, are all dependent upon God’s will. What is all-important in the afterlife is the virtue of one’s actions throughout one’s life in this world.
Everyone, confident of his own wisdom and the worldly success it brings, walks straight ahead, fearlessly, paying scant attention to the fact that at any moment he may plunge headlong to his doom. Oppressing the weak and innocent, hurling insults, indulging in corrupt practices, scorning the failures of others, arguing on false premises, all such reprehensible acts can plunge man into the yawning abyss of destruction–just like stepping into an empty lift shaft on the eighth floor.
Neither friends, nor any of the material attributes of his worldly successes–and certainly not wishful thinking–will save him at that particular juncture.
There is no one in this world who is not on the brink of that lift shaft. This is a point which is little understood: all are convinced that they are standing on such firm ground that there is no power in heaven or earth which will dare to touch them.
But, at any moment, at any second, they may find themselves toppling right over the edge.
