My grandma used to remark sometimes, while sitting at her usual spot on the bed, looking out the window lost in reflection, “ab woh log nai rahe” - the people of my time no longer remain. The older I grow, the farther I traverse in life, the more the meaning of her saying seems to sink in.
My family doctor, whose treatment I grew up with, passed away.
The hope, healing, positivity and power he brought to my family and several others…I am faced with a sudden scarcity of words to describe the value his life and profession brought to countless patients and friends.
Loss of people dear to you is as natural as the cyclic reoccurrence of night and day, one of the most natural processes of our lives. Change is too. My flight to foreign shores marks the beginning of etchings of loss and change on my mind. Leaving the nest was metamorphosing. It brought with it a lot of change, a lot of shaking up of the world I had known and loss of life. Sure, some of the change was good, required and welcome. The unpleasant changes have been my Achilles heel and dealing with them seems to be a perpetual work in progress.
You grow up with a sense of your world - the world that you’re acquainted with from the time your infant brain begins making sense of its surroundings, and the people who make up that world. For me, the hardest part about growing up has been learning how to come to terms with my ever-changing world.
