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Death

Which is the most appropriate punctuation mark to put after the word Death? An exclamation mark, a full stop, a question mark or a comma? It is true that it can be any one of these for different people. It would depend on general belief. But invariably death is presented as something to be feared, something we are told would happen to us and yet we do not truly believe that it would. It is feared  for our near and dear ones and cursed on our enemies. We talk about the departed or terminally ill as people who need our sympathies. Our language about death is never positive, always sad, fearful, regretful. Places associated with death, burning pyres, cemeteries, funeral processions evoke terror and we avert our eyes. Why? Granted, it is an unknown land and all of our knowledge is based on information, and that too in metaphorical terms, mostly from scriptures but what makes us fear and dread death? All of us have to cross the threshold of death. The highest and the lowest have crossed to the other side. No one is spared.

Why cannot it be regarded as a rite of passage into another world, a world of new possibilities, discoveries?

Why could it not have been portrayed as relief- for the sick? As rejuvenation for the old and decayed bodies? As a limitless possibility, for the downtrodden and weary? A liberator for the one chained in either desires of within or without?

What is the right way to describe death?

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