Death cafe Pondicherry!
Looking at the palatial Indian Coffee house at 5 30 PM, I patted myself on the choice of location, it didnt last when several people asked me why I hadn't chosen more appropriate places like the French Cafes-I wouldn't say it was cumbersome for us but it did get curious for them and at the end, The cleaner really got pissed about having no space to move around our table.I usually choose a place that is both centrally located and affordable to make the event as inclusive as possible and here the food and coffee was good as well.
After beginning of the Death Cafes, I am aware that people who are watching me casually waiting might show up after half an hour for the session.I am usually smiling and taking care not to do anything particularly alarming around half an hour before the session , especially at venue like Bangalore literature fest, ( more about that in the next post).So within few minutes of going in, looking around to find a table central enough, one person walked up to me and said, "Sneha?" I say, "Death Cafe?" We smile!
We talk about new books bought, love for literature and two more people from the adjoining table step into our four seater table , It almost feels like a movie where "team members" are meeting to plot something.We speak about a professor clicking a like on Facebook post and the medical intern following up on the event.
in comes another person who tells that he is spiritually inclined and has come here for possible understanding and epiphanies.Another person comes in wearing youth for punditry tee and then comes a gorgeous woman with red lipstick, She is accompanied by an Australian who had been sitting in a close by table all along ( I told you about behaving appropriately..see?)I don't talk much to her, though she and I had a lot to catch up from 6 years of not having met.we continue talking about ou first experiences with Death.
Most people seem to have the hard hitting experience after they have grown up wile they all remembered their grandparent's funerals and not being allowed to participate, We speak about the choice of immortality potion and how it might kill what is inside , many people would take it, I learn if they wouldn't age.
Then came in a man with tiny blue flowers on his shirt, superbly confident and listened to the briefing about what Death Cafe is and is not again, People had introduced themselves for the nth time now.he person who mentioned that he was spiritually inclined speaks about life after death and we talk about Buddhist bardo practice, about how Bhagavad Geeta writes the same thing, we talk about IF we want to get out of birth and death cycle in the first place (only person like Priyam Ghosh could do that), we talk about taking on different bodies and what we'd like to be.One person talks about being an athlete and having more time to practice.Priyam wants to be an Indian man, The medical intern wants to be himself again.
He then speaks with vulnerability about anticipating and deciding treatments people should receive at the triage table at JIPMER and how on a hunch he let a person with Oxygen saturation of 99% go to the ER and found him after a few minutes receiving CPR- He spoke about the grateful relatives, feelings thumping along with blood in his heart and value of being in the field.
We read a passage from a book borrowed from Auroville Library which speaks about luck of having a year to live, about mindful fulness in eating breakfast and noting activities we do just to avoid discomfort.We talk some more, coder a few more cups of coffee.
The time seems to have come and feeling the shift in energy levels, we exchange numbers and speak for the last time about what this session was for them.The last person who entered pays everybody's bill and we all walk out back into LIFE!
After beginning of the Death Cafes, I am aware that people who are watching me casually waiting might show up after half an hour for the session.I am usually smiling and taking care not to do anything particularly alarming around half an hour before the session , especially at venue like Bangalore literature fest, ( more about that in the next post).So within few minutes of going in, looking around to find a table central enough, one person walked up to me and said, "Sneha?" I say, "Death Cafe?" We smile!
We talk about new books bought, love for literature and two more people from the adjoining table step into our four seater table , It almost feels like a movie where "team members" are meeting to plot something.We speak about a professor clicking a like on Facebook post and the medical intern following up on the event.
in comes another person who tells that he is spiritually inclined and has come here for possible understanding and epiphanies.Another person comes in wearing youth for punditry tee and then comes a gorgeous woman with red lipstick, She is accompanied by an Australian who had been sitting in a close by table all along ( I told you about behaving appropriately..see?)I don't talk much to her, though she and I had a lot to catch up from 6 years of not having met.we continue talking about ou first experiences with Death.
Most people seem to have the hard hitting experience after they have grown up wile they all remembered their grandparent's funerals and not being allowed to participate, We speak about the choice of immortality potion and how it might kill what is inside , many people would take it, I learn if they wouldn't age.
Then came in a man with tiny blue flowers on his shirt, superbly confident and listened to the briefing about what Death Cafe is and is not again, People had introduced themselves for the nth time now.he person who mentioned that he was spiritually inclined speaks about life after death and we talk about Buddhist bardo practice, about how Bhagavad Geeta writes the same thing, we talk about IF we want to get out of birth and death cycle in the first place (only person like Priyam Ghosh could do that), we talk about taking on different bodies and what we'd like to be.One person talks about being an athlete and having more time to practice.Priyam wants to be an Indian man, The medical intern wants to be himself again.
He then speaks with vulnerability about anticipating and deciding treatments people should receive at the triage table at JIPMER and how on a hunch he let a person with Oxygen saturation of 99% go to the ER and found him after a few minutes receiving CPR- He spoke about the grateful relatives, feelings thumping along with blood in his heart and value of being in the field.
We read a passage from a book borrowed from Auroville Library which speaks about luck of having a year to live, about mindful fulness in eating breakfast and noting activities we do just to avoid discomfort.We talk some more, coder a few more cups of coffee.
The time seems to have come and feeling the shift in energy levels, we exchange numbers and speak for the last time about what this session was for them.The last person who entered pays everybody's bill and we all walk out back into LIFE!
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