The young man stood lost in deep sorrow. ‘I don’t know what to do. Everything happened so quickly she did not give us time. ‘His eyes forlorn, he talked about the sudden demise of his beloved mother.

‘My dad is heart broken. He is feeling very low.My relatives have been insisting on my marriage and I have almost committed. I was in a daze. What do I do?’

Caught between extremes of emotions the most demanding of situations, the loss of a beloved one and the trepidation of a new start, he stood confused.

‘Who can I talk to? Who would understand me. Have not slept for the last few days. It is tough’.

What does one do in times of such pain?

I remembered how having just returned from my brother’s funeral I wrote the lesson I was teaching on the board which said, The Dear Departed! I was stunned at the irony but put up a brave face and continued with the class.

The dice of fortune

throws up

challenges a plenty

sometimes in company

sometimes lonely in companionship

many times just plain single

you just learn to deal with it and move on

perhaps think of a stray dog somewhere

who would have none to care

or a bird cut short before its flight

the very first one

sigh and know

it’s life

the way it is!