What is death?

Thatha was little more serious than usual. But the little darlings around him were not. To them Thatha told. “Today I am going to talk to you about death.” Maithree shot back, “Thatha if it is going to be sad, I do not want to hear about it.”

Thatha replied, “I cannot avoid talking about it, because this is one of the important aspects of every religion I would try to make it not sad.” Thatha continued, “There was young girl called Shantha. Shantha was a very serious girl. Though her parents asked her to be happy and not serious she did not obey them. All through the day, she used to take several colours of putty (clay or play dough) and was making dolls.” Yamani shouted, “Thatha I also do that,” and Rohan nodded his head, “I too was doing that earlier.”

Thatha simply smiled and continued, “ After some time Shantha became an expert in making dolls with Putty. On a week end, she made very pretty toys of a princess, lion, Ravana and Ganesha. Her mother also liked these toys very much. Before going to school, Shantha requested her mother to take care of these pretty toys. But that Day a plumber came to repair taps in their house. Without seeing the toys, he stepped on them. All of the again became putty . When Shantha came back from school, she started crying. Her mother consoled her as follows. ”Shantha, stop crying, they were only toys made by you. Nothing has happened to them,. They have only become putty again. You who have made them can again make them. Or you can make other toys with the same putty. Suppose you do not like to make toys. Your sister Lathika or her friend Malu can make toys with them. A toy becoming putty and the putty becoming toy is only a very natural thing.” Shantha realized what her mother was seeing was correct and stopped crying.

Maithree was little thoughtful. She said, “What you want us to understand from this story thatha?”

Thatha replied, “We are all dolls made out of putty by God. One day this doll will again become putty. And the putty will again become doll.” When the doll becomes putty, we say that somebody has died. But with the same putty God will make another doll. Then we will say that somebody is born. Like Shantha who cried when the doll became a putty, should we cry when god , when God decides to make another doll with the putty?” Rohan replied, “I agree with you thatha. I had a doll. The doll broke. I cried .But Daddy bought me another doll. Dolls will come and go.” Maithree summed up, “Moral of the story is, “Changes happen at all times. We should not be sad or happy about it.”