My Obituary

Arun Ram, 75 years old, passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was survived by a wife and two children. How picture perfect!


He was both an introvert and an extravert at different times in his life. It would often appear that worrying was his hobby. He found ingenious ways to fret about things that were outside his control. His early life was peppered with this trait. He was often known to be forgetful and lost. While it was clearly a lack of mindfulness, it gave him the intellectual heft of a person in deep thought! It was just a mirage. His bulletproof like glasses complemented this overall appeal. However, the blue jackal's color was stripped clean by the taint of the academic results. On the results day, Dr. Jekyll had nowhere to hide!


At school, he genuinely attempted to be an average joe! He considered being lost in the crowd as a skillset that needed to be honed. Academics remained his Achilles' heel until he limped his way through the illustrious doors of London Business School, an alma mater that he remained unabashedly proud of.


The best phase of his rather boring life was between 30 to 50, when he achieved major milestones. He considered the boring life as a feature and not a bug. Living an ordinary life was a milestone and he nailed it! He was smitten by a girl that his parents asked him to fall in love with. An incredulous way of saying it was an arranged love marriage. His wife of 46 years, Mekhala, described him as a Compact SUV when she picked him up from the Marriage Showroom. He held the promise of a comfortable ride and steady mileage. However, ended up like a rickety hatchback that often needed her navigation and guidance to reach the destination. Not to mention the high maintenance cost of ego, indifference, callousness, and... She restrained herself from expanding further, as a mark of respect to the deceased!


He was a below-average husband, a half-decent father, a cordial son (most straightforward of the three roles) but a competent worker (not corroborated by his supervisors!). His work gave him a great sense of direction and purpose in life. In the end, career slipped away, and the family took back the grips of his meandering life. Like everyone else, he paid the price for his warped choices and misplaced priorities.

He was a jackpot winner of the ovarian lottery. He fell in the lap of a tolerant and loving family of parents, grandparents, uncle, and aunts. A support system that he took for granted until it gradually dismantled with the vagaries of time. He suffered from the malady that John Lennon often warned us about - "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." 


His epitaph read, "Here lies a man who could have done better, so much better." 

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