The Need To Live

Dementia.

Cancer.

Angioplasty.

Paralysis.

Stroke.
‘She is bedridden for a year.’

‘But it is good that he did not suffer too much.’

‘Which hospital?’

‘Visiting hours?’

‘Her eyes were completely blank.

She didn’t even notice that we were there.’
In a city of ten million people,

Death is a daily occurrence.

But every so often,

A child is born.

And all one needs

To restore the will to live

Is to stare with wonder

At the smile of a child.








(written 24th June 2008, during my Kolkata trip)