VANITY OF  MODERN DAY RELATIONSHIPS

A few years ago, a cartoon appeared in a Magazine. In the first frame, the father, mother and children of a family are arguing about what they have seen in the house next to them. The father says, “It is marble” to which the wife says, “No, it is mosaic tile”. One of the children argues that it is neither marble nor mosaic, but ceramic tile only. Finally they decided to visit the house again and settle the argument.  In the second frame, they are inside that house. You may think, “What is so special about it!” In that house lies the body of a dead person. While they came to pay homage to the dead person earlier, their eye was on the floor and its details.  The cartoon is trying to depict the vanity of modern humans.

We have come to an age where even the burial is ‘administered’ by the event-management teams. Following is a conversation that can take place in the near future in Kerala – as anticipated by a writer.

An old lady died. One person in the neighborhood (Let us call him X) asks, “Have the children of the deceased arrived?”

An unknown person (let us call him Y) standing in the house of the dead person says, “No, they have informed that they are not coming.”

“Who are those sitting near and crying,” asks X.

“They are the staff of the ‘Always Event Management’ and I am the manager. We conduct this program,” was the reply from Y.

X asks, “Program?” to which Y replies, “Yes, Sir. We do everything our client asks, whether it be for marriage, baptism, death or anything you ask... you name it; we do it.  We do it the in the most colorful way and as per the requirement of the clients. Now, there is about 100 staff taking care of every aspect of burial.”

“Who has entrusted this to you?” asks X

“Her children only! They booked for it from Canada last year,” said Y.

X said, “She was not ill last year!” to which Y told, “Not necessary. It is better to book once one cross sixty. We could work out every detail of this event much early.”

X asked, “What are the services you render for burial?”

Y said, “As soon as we hear about the death, we bring the mobile mortuary; make flex boards as per their requirement and place it appropriate places to let the society know of the death; inform all the relatives whose phone numbers are given; shamiana, photo, video, mike, band etc. are arranged.  In this case, since she did not have much close relatives around, we have also arranged some people to cry sitting near the body. How can anyone organize so quickly, if not planned earlier?”

X exclaimed, “She is lucky! What is the next program?” to which Y told, “funeral procession, sir. For that we have arranged 100 cars.”

X further asked, “Will it not fetch an enormous amount for all the expenses. And the reply was, “No, Sir. When compared to the four families with about 15 people in this case coming from Canada, the expense is very minimal. Moreover, they are watching everything live at their homes from the beginning.  Hence they will not miss anything that happens here.”

X was curious and asks, “How did you come to know of the death?” to which Y replied, “That is the efficiency of our service. Once a person is registered with us, he/she is constantly watched by our staff.”

“Does that mean that you were waiting for this person’s death?” X asked.

“Of course, Sir! More than 300 people are now being watched by our staff. That is ‘Always Event Management’ and that is why so many people rely on us for any event. You name it; we do it.”