Kittu Mama - an innocent spirit from our family, unlocked and liberated from his physically and mentally challenged self this week. Call it a gene mutation, Down's syndrome, a genetic defect or by any other name, he was a helpless creation that toiled in life for nearly over 50 years. Nature's experiments are beyond comprehension to us, the mere mortals.Somehow the 23 pair of chromosomes didn't sit well for him and no force on earth could change that.
My memories of him go way back to when I was a child visiting my sister's house. Only a few memories of him stuck with me. He had six fingers in his hands and lived almost in hiding most of his life in a dark corner of the house. Those days they were growing couple of cows at home. He was good with cows! Somehow it felt like he could speak with them and they spoke back to him. He had no conception of value for money. Anything you give becomes meaningful only after he exchanged it for coconut pieces and snack dal (pori-kadalai) from the corner shop. Be it 25 paise or 10 rupees. Didn't matter. Days, months and years passed and he grew older physically, yet his vision dimmed. His mind and senses were left behind.
The question that persists in me is "Why?" We humans are forever limited in our understanding of the purpose of life and have to rely on our imagination to answer that question. I understand Karma is one possible explanation, if you believe in rebirth and the continuity of soul outside of bodily existence. I don't know. May be it is true, may be not. The question shall remain unanswered and forever a mystery.
Evolution chooses subjects at random to experiment. Some decisions in the ancestry might have increased the probability of those experiments in the family. Many lives are bound by the consequences of such decisions and the nature's experiments that followed. Today, we remain as helpless witness to more than one spirit that didn't flourish, incapable to lead a productive life and thus wither way in the end. Literacy that teaches to avoid marriage between kins, medical tests during conception, general awareness of health would have all helped. But hindsight is 20/20. Call it fate or destiny. What happened, did happen for unknown reasons. To mourn the passed and witness the living forever unknowingly enslaved in life as dependents of others is today's reality.
May the spirit of Kittu mama be free at last. Some religions belief that earthly life is misery and after life is bliss. Wish it is true for his sake. Rest in peace or pass through another body, let him flourish next time around.
My memories of him go way back to when I was a child visiting my sister's house. Only a few memories of him stuck with me. He had six fingers in his hands and lived almost in hiding most of his life in a dark corner of the house. Those days they were growing couple of cows at home. He was good with cows! Somehow it felt like he could speak with them and they spoke back to him. He had no conception of value for money. Anything you give becomes meaningful only after he exchanged it for coconut pieces and snack dal (pori-kadalai) from the corner shop. Be it 25 paise or 10 rupees. Didn't matter. Days, months and years passed and he grew older physically, yet his vision dimmed. His mind and senses were left behind.
The question that persists in me is "Why?" We humans are forever limited in our understanding of the purpose of life and have to rely on our imagination to answer that question. I understand Karma is one possible explanation, if you believe in rebirth and the continuity of soul outside of bodily existence. I don't know. May be it is true, may be not. The question shall remain unanswered and forever a mystery.
Evolution chooses subjects at random to experiment. Some decisions in the ancestry might have increased the probability of those experiments in the family. Many lives are bound by the consequences of such decisions and the nature's experiments that followed. Today, we remain as helpless witness to more than one spirit that didn't flourish, incapable to lead a productive life and thus wither way in the end. Literacy that teaches to avoid marriage between kins, medical tests during conception, general awareness of health would have all helped. But hindsight is 20/20. Call it fate or destiny. What happened, did happen for unknown reasons. To mourn the passed and witness the living forever unknowingly enslaved in life as dependents of others is today's reality.
May the spirit of Kittu mama be free at last. Some religions belief that earthly life is misery and after life is bliss. Wish it is true for his sake. Rest in peace or pass through another body, let him flourish next time around.
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