Into Eternity

Organ donation is still a rare phenomenon in our country; and the same is true of other nations as well. When we come across persons who have dared to donate their eyes and body, we raise our eye-brows; we find it hard to believe that there are persons who could so easily pledge their eyes, so that through someone else, they can see the world; their bodies would be used for medical research in medical colleges and research centers, so that students would be able to learn anatomy and be able to serve humanity better. There are so much organs in need each day, and probably only a fraction of the demand is met by generous souls!

I am coming back to Jyoti Basu, who had donated his eyes, and body; his body had been donated to the SSKM medical college and research center. That was Basu's last gift to humanity, truly a wonderful gift! We Christians believe in buying our bodies, so that they may become earth; Hindus cremate their bodies after death, and they too become earth. But when cadaver is handed over for the betterment of humanity, does it not serve a greater purpose than reminding us that we are earth, and to earth all shall return. After death, what else do we have to offer to the world, but our bodies, and that is what this great man has done, and I take my hats off for him.

We live in a society, where even ordinary blood donation is a matter of great rarity. There are sophisticated people who would reason out why they should donate blood, which may be sold for a big price! There is so much of blood is in want each day for either direct transfusion, or during surgeries that sometimes people lose their lives due to lack of blood stock. But, what do I lose by donating a unit of blood? I don't lose anything; the body is able to get back to normal within minutes, and still the stigma remains. We do not need to donate blood on every second month, to make a record, but if we can donate blood whenever we can, we are being responsible social beings.

There are such lovely words said of blood donation; this is something that all of us can do so easily, and it does not cost us anything. All that we require is a little courage, and a greater amount of generosity. Only about one in a ten thousand or million may die due to donating blood, and when we give blood to the needy, we are sharing the free gift of nature. This is something that we all of us can share without holding back, and it is this blood which makes us all one, going beyond distinctions of rich and poor, privileged or underprivileged. We do not need to worry about donating our eyes or our body, we can start with blood donation. If I can donate blood to those in dire need, I can be proud to be a universal citizen.

There is fear and prejudice against organ donation; this happens even between siblings and first degree relations. We are surely against commercialization of human organs, which are priceless gifts; but if I can pledge to give my body and the eyes, which is not at all going to affect the way I am, after life spirit departs from my mortal remains, it can contribute a lot to humanity. I know deep within that my spirit is calling me to fill in the form of pledge to donate my organs, eyes and the body, and still there is something which is stopping me, but I know after a few weeks or months, I would dare to fill in the pledge, and tell the world I care for her!

Touching Lives

Today the city of Kolkata bade final farewell to one of the citizens, who had become part of the history of this state for the past sixty years or so. Jyoti Basu, a man who is as short in stature as his name, and who had such a command over reaching out to the masses, and holding the reins of governing the state for 23 years, that today about half the city had gathered on roads to bid him farewell. Basu had always been a controversial man, and he had equal number of foes as friends. He had political rivals, who could not help but take their hats off for his political acumen. But the problem with us is that we often love to label people, and if we label Jyoti Basu only as a representative of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), then we may be doing injustice to his personality.

We all of us have several sides to our personalities; one is personal, another social, and there are cultural, familial, political and economic, and academic; the list is rather endless. We may not excel in all the fields, but we cannot ignore any of these fields, because they are all interconnected. If the professional side occupies much of our time, then our personal and familial ties may weaken, and that may have further unpleasant consequences. At the same time, it is not possible to allot equal amount of time for all the different fields of one’s personality. We need to prioritise our areas of interest and importance and have to divide the time accordingly. I believe Jyoti Basu would have done this exercise several times in his long life.

Our lives are very short in comparison to the age of the universe; Jyoti Basu had lived 95 years, and out of which about ten to fifteen years would have gone out of his control; the past five years, he was at the mercy of his family and friends, to decide what he wanted. But out of the eighty years, we take quite some time to establish ourselves in the society; we begin to build up a family, which takes some more years; this way our lives are spent so soon, often in a disoriented way. If we focus on what we have gained in life, we may be quite disappointed. Instead if we begin to ask ourselves what have I given to the world, out of the little I came into the world and out of the little I made for myself, then probably we may be able to smile as our spirits take leave of our mortal bodies.

I feel there is one simple yardstick to measure the success of our lives; surely this is not on the basis of the amount of money, wealth and riches we have accumulated, through fair and unfair means; but this yardstick is based on how many lives we have touched over the years. Most of us are simple people, with acquaintances who are too few to number; we may be able to reach out to only a few hundreds or thousands in a year. But I would feel happy and contended if I am able to touch the life of at least one or two in a year. If I am able to make at least one or two persons to smile in life, then I should be proud to be a human person.

It would be hard to determine how many people Jyoti Basu had touched in his long life; but slowly we shall be hearing the stories of men and women who had felt the warmth of this person, and such sweet memories are the greatest tribute that can be paid to the departed souls. These stories are the ones which can give life to the earth, and make us feel life is worth living. As we express our “Lal Salaam” to Jyoti Basu, I would like to ask myself, when I am on the verge of bidding final farewell to this wonderful world, will I have at least a handful of men and women, whose hearts will throb for me, with love, admiration and wonderment?