No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
‐ Steve Jobs, Commencement Address, Stanford University, 2005 I have always been fascinated with cremation grounds. I was forbidden to go there when I was young, but later on, when I grew up, I started going there even when there was no need to. There, I felt as if I was pressing against a mysterious space, which was a step away from our world and had a faint overlap of that far away distant world. In most religions, anxiety of the unknown after death is dealt through elaborate funeral rituals, which are believed to help the soul on its onward journey. I have been intrigued by these rituals, especially with the sincerity by which they are conducted. Does this sincerity arise from the concern for the departed soul? Or is it a response to one’s internal queries? Or both? I have been closely observing this fascination of mine as I have been visiting the cremation grounds as part of this ongoing project.