Can We Talk

Where the vultures gather

by T. Arjuna

In Mumbai; the Bombay of old, close to the Hanging Gardens that overlook the marine drive; not to be confused with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; is a place where the vultures in the region gather.

The Hanging Gardens in Mumbai, India, also known as Ferozeshah Mehta Gardens, are terraced gardens perched at the top of Malabar Hill, on its western side, just opposite the Kamala Nehru Park. They provide sunset views over the Arabian Sea and feature numerous hedges carved into the shapes of animals. The park was laid out in 1881 over Bombay’s main reservoir, some say to cover the water from the potentially contaminating activity of the nearby Tower of Silence.

A Tower of Silence or Dakhma (Persian) is a circular, raised structure used by Zoroastrians for exposure of the dead. Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, is believed to have lived about 600 B.C. in ancient Persia - modern day Iran. He was the traditional founder of the ancient Persian religion called Zoroastrism or Zoroastrianism. This religious system was founded on the old Aryan folk religion and is taught in the Zend-Avesta, the sacred writings of the Zoroastrian religion. It recognizes two creative powers, one good and the other evil, includes the belief in life after death, and teaches the final triumph of good over evil. The people of Persian origin in India are known as Parsi.

They are concentrated in and around the Mumbai region in Maharashtra State. The most famous of them is the Tata family. In Parsi Zoroastrian tradition, exposure of the dead is additionally considered to be an individual’s final act of charity, providing the birds with what would otherwise be destroyed. Vultures formerly disposed of a body in minutes, and no other method has proved fully effective.

Vultures are scavenging birds that feed mostly on the carcasses of dead animals.

Vultures are found on every continent except Antarctica and Oceania. Although feeding largely on meat; as opposed to insects and small reptiles, vultures do not generally kill their own prey. Vultures are nature’s noble caretakers.

The vulture is the most crucial avian scavenger in the world, and plays a very important part in maintaining the health and beauty of our environment.

Vultures are incredible birds. In fact, they have been revered by many cultures throughout history. Here are some examples: The Hebrews chose to compare God with a vulture because of the bird’s amazing talent of flight. They admired the vulture’s ability to “float” on the air for long spans of time, without so much as flapping a wing.

The vulture played an important role in ancient Egyptian culture, as well.

One of the most famous goddesses of the early river Nile was Mut or, Nekhbet, the female counterpart of the king of the gods. Her name means “mother” and she was believed to have brought forth all that exists.

She is most commonly depicted with large wings and the head of a vulture. In Native American culture, the vulture was regarded as a very important totem animal that represents cleansing of the spirit and strength to accept difficulty. It was a spiritual figure for many.

However, this article is not about this carrion bird. This is about our own astonishing specimen of these amazing birds in human form; those that are amongst us in our society; people who prey and scavenge upon someone else in the manner of a vulture. These mortal vultures, unlike their name sake, mostly gather around: the infamous, the nouveaux rich, and the pusillanimously puissant.

Of late, they have also found another feeding ground. They have learnt from their evolutionary brethren - to flock around the dead. These deadly creatures are seen convening in the homes of the dead, the funeral parlours, and places of burial or cremation. In a sense, these mundane vultures also prey on the deceased: not by devouring the perished, but by consuming the opportunity to perpetrate and parade pity. They descend like hogs, to hog the limelight and exhibit their hogwash.

When the dead were alive, these birds of prey remain invisible. None amongst them would care to befriend the dead person and stand by him in his hour of need. But, when death dawns and the television lights on; they descend like fleas onto dogs - with a blare of sympathy, which, even the next of kin is unable to display. The greater the fame of the dead person; more will be the number of vultures that compete to condole the dead.

In the presence of compatriots, compassion flows unbounded. Some part with money, not to ease the burden of the family of the deceased, but to encourage ostentation and enrich the undertaker. Many promise the earth to the earthlings left behind by the deceased, but vanish thereafter.

Others of the ilk, deliver oration - miming and mimicking and at times bettering William Shakespeare’s Mark Antony; and some will sing paeans of praise. But all of them will, in the aftermath, move on to seek another death, another occasion, and another opportunity. None will care nor be concerned for the family of the departed.

Once, I was forced to sit through an oration by one of this clans. The speaker had no knowledge of the dead person except to know that he was a famous personality. The speaker himself was a celebrated personality, not because of any cherished mundane qualities, but because he was the joker of the pack of jokers in our society. He had forced himself on the grieving family and insisted on delivering this oration. It went something like this:

“O Monks and Men of all religion, Who are all present in this holy ground; O Friends, and my countrymen, lend me your ears; I come, not to bury this great soul, but to praise him; ( while saying this he asks someone nearby what was the dead persons name; and, not comprehending it, carries on regardless) The evil that men do lives after them, and that is why we all die.

Hence no evil accrue to us; For death does us part from our evil.

So it is, with this blessed soul; Lying with his face up, looking at the Heavens; A place he will surely reach.

For all who lick up, sorry, look up; Go up. Like me, a blessed soul.

None like me, ever will one find; In this greatest land on earth.

For, the good is oft interred with our bones, So let it be with this dead person. The noble Monk Who spoke before me has told you he was ambitious: (the speaker was not sure if it was the Monk or the dead person who was ambitious) If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath he answered it ...

As we all shall one day; Here, under leave of the deceased and his bereaving family and the rest, I say, he is an honourable man; So are we all; all honourable; I come to speak in this funeral; He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But that Monk said he was ambitious; And the Monk is an honourable person....

So in the name of all honourable persons Like the Monks, like you, like me; Like my forefathers, all descendants of the great Kings.

All honourable men.

Yet the monk said he was ambitious; I thrice presented him a kingly nut, To quench his insatiable thirst, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet the Monk says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what the Monk spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason.... Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with the deceased, And I must pause till it come back to me.

Now we shall all together bury, once and for all, This honourable man; before he queries To be, or not to be : that is the question.

If this speech made any sense to anyone, I will be damned.

Many are our people who genuinely feel for and pine for the dead. And countless will be the honest sympathizer. These will be from amongst the true friends and family members of the deceased. But none will exhibit the greed for kudos and photo-opportunity which these professional vultures display.

Where from do these seekers of publicity - out of the misery and grief of the family of the departed-arrive? Where else but from the very same clan of: the infamous, the nouveaux rich, and the pusillanimously puissant. They are the ones who became what they are - infamous, rich, and powerful - not because of any inherent talent, but through their ability to kowtow and bum suck.

The truly famous, honestly rich, and the genuinely powerful, do not exhibit their grief as cheaply as this species do. Those of this breed realize not, that one day, they too would decay and will be gone to become: a non entity, a has been, a forgotten: the dead.

What is death? Death is the termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. The word refers both to the particular processes of life’s cessation as well as to the condition or state of a formerly-living body. The nature of death has been for millennia a central concern of the world’s religious traditions and of philosophical enquiry; and, belief in some kind of afterlife or rebirth has been a central aspect of religious belief. In modern scientific enquiry, the origin and nature of consciousness has yet to be fully understood. Any such view about the existence or non-existence of consciousness after death therefore remains speculative.

The concept of death is a key to human understanding of the phenomenon. The absence of this understanding is the main cause for some people to behave as they do. The Dead need respect. A place of death is not a stage for performance.

It is a stage in which all performance has ceased for the deceased. Death and the dead, need to be mourned.

A funeral is a rite. Not a ritual of festivity for the celebrity. Certainly; do celebrate the dead, but let it be with reverence, with dignity and solemnity. To seek publicity coverage from the death of a person will only reflect the covetousness and inferiority of such seeker.

Let us learn to rightly honour the dead. Only then will we receive admiration and respect.

Accord help and honour on the dead, not when deceased, but when the dead were alive. That way, we will help in extending their survival; in making for a happier death. To help a person to embrace death with happy and pleasent memories of you is a Godly act that bestows all what is given, upon the giver as well.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking, keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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