Cancer -- Caverns of Despair

Soma led a life of lifelessness from July 2007 onwards. Her face was joyous but eyes were tearful. Her attitudes indicated her presence in a different realm, not in this world. She behaved like she was in a hurry, as if someone was calling and waiting for her.

A deft singer, simple and articulate lady was transformed into a silent but (may be a reluctant) a seeker of the ultimate truth.

One of my cousins, Rajdeep Bhattacharya, an MBA student translated a famous Bengali poem in her memory which summarized her mood during her last few months before she died on Nov 2007.

“I look for that eye that beholds this world, and all others, always the eye that guides the suns and stars, so that they lose not their ways.

I wade through the caverns of despair. As, blinded, I look for the sight clouded, by cobwebs of life, I wander, looking for my light.

Unaware, that it resides in me, high up in the skies of my mind, my guiding star in the seas, the light that I crave to find.”

Truly she was searching for that eternal light. She realized that yoga and other medical treatments were nothing but dust storms which could only inflict pain and blur her vision, preventing her from finding that brilliant glow of eternality.