“To live -and die- without regret”.
It has been 48 days since I have written anything here. It also looks like yesterday! I wanted to write about death, after I heard about the road accident which put my dear friend Pamela Rooks in a coma. And I never sat at the computer to do so… I was not able to concentrate... may be I was reluctant to be face to face with the only definite thing in our life.
Suddenly I was remembered of another accident which happened during the shooting of the film "Train to Pakistan". We were on the banks of Sutlej river near a rail bridge preparing for some early morning shoot. It was still dark. As we were discussing about the shot standing on the tracks looking towards the bridge, I heard a loud shout from my assistant… “Sir…jump...move away”. He was in fact sitting on the rail and warming himself with a small camp fire he made. Pam and I suddenly moved away from the tracks and within a second or two a goods train zoomed across the bridge. I still tremor about that instant. Unfortunately one of the production assistants in the unit was walking on the rail bridge, against the instruction to use the parallel road bridge to cross the river. His dead body was found in the river after 10 days.
We were told by the production people that there will be no train traffic along that bridge till 8am in the morning - supposedly after confirming with the railway authorities! I am still doubtful about that. The train was approaching the bridge frighteningly silent! If my assistant Vinayan was looking towards us, even, he would not have noticed the approaching train. Luckily for us he was looking the other way. Unfortunately Vinayan died of asthma a year later. I still miss him. He was such a help to me. I am sure he will be wishing me all the best from the heavens.
With in a fraction of seconds the fate saved our life on that fateful day. As I understand it was a strange accident which happened to Pamela. The car radio which flew away from the other car which met with an accident came and hit her on the head. I pray to the God for a speedy recovery. Pamela, be a brave women as you were always.
Accidents are always a matter of a split second. Of course, none of us can avoid death. It is inevitable. And we don’t know when it will happen. All that we can do is to live ‘now’ with total awareness. In the Buddhist approach, life and death are seen as one whole, where death is the beginning of another chapter of life. Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected. As Tibet’s famous poet saint, Milarepa, said: “My religion is to live-and die-without regret.”
Suddenly I was remembered of another accident which happened during the shooting of the film "Train to Pakistan". We were on the banks of Sutlej river near a rail bridge preparing for some early morning shoot. It was still dark. As we were discussing about the shot standing on the tracks looking towards the bridge, I heard a loud shout from my assistant… “Sir…jump...move away”. He was in fact sitting on the rail and warming himself with a small camp fire he made. Pam and I suddenly moved away from the tracks and within a second or two a goods train zoomed across the bridge. I still tremor about that instant. Unfortunately one of the production assistants in the unit was walking on the rail bridge, against the instruction to use the parallel road bridge to cross the river. His dead body was found in the river after 10 days.
We were told by the production people that there will be no train traffic along that bridge till 8am in the morning - supposedly after confirming with the railway authorities! I am still doubtful about that. The train was approaching the bridge frighteningly silent! If my assistant Vinayan was looking towards us, even, he would not have noticed the approaching train. Luckily for us he was looking the other way. Unfortunately Vinayan died of asthma a year later. I still miss him. He was such a help to me. I am sure he will be wishing me all the best from the heavens.
With in a fraction of seconds the fate saved our life on that fateful day. As I understand it was a strange accident which happened to Pamela. The car radio which flew away from the other car which met with an accident came and hit her on the head. I pray to the God for a speedy recovery. Pamela, be a brave women as you were always.
Accidents are always a matter of a split second. Of course, none of us can avoid death. It is inevitable. And we don’t know when it will happen. All that we can do is to live ‘now’ with total awareness. In the Buddhist approach, life and death are seen as one whole, where death is the beginning of another chapter of life. Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected. As Tibet’s famous poet saint, Milarepa, said: “My religion is to live-and die-without regret.”
posted by Sunny Joseph | 8:39 AM
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