Loss

Life poses questions so does death. Grief provides some respite after death. According to Murakami, life is a series of events that keep us away from loneliness. The people that truly matter are the ones that remember you even after your death. The author states that – ‘Death has a way of eliminating people who do not recognise your sorrow’. We truly lose a part of ourselves when someone dies. Every loss he encountered was different because he loved each of the individuals differently and sometimes together as a family.

These deeply personal essays describe the passing of a pet and parents. They are a ‘reflection over life’s opposite thing’. The author had numerous questions about their act of passing like – i) Why did his father pass away peacefully?” and ii) “Why did his mother have to suffer?” His father overcame cancer but suffered from a lifetime impairment and spent days and nights staring into nothingness.

“The mechanical rattle of a kingfisher, a flash of winged blue piercing through rice fields. Sometimes when their sounds overlap and intersect, an orchestra of shrieks and melodic repeats and a gap forms into which the sorrows run through.”

Siddharth writes whilst describing different kinds of grief.

With powerful imagery, he observes and describes nature’s play at length. The evocative prose was sometimes difficult to comprehend just like grief. It makes you want to hug the people around you and keep them close. The passages of prominent authors on loss and loneliness were food for thought. It was heartening to read about a pet dog acknowledging his presence. The book also gives much-needed information about the depreciating air quality proving harmful for pets.

Philosophical and poignant ‘Loss’ poses important questions about grief. Trying to resurrect broken parts of himself through the language of words, he tries to seek closure.

This is not a review but a scattering of words that acknowledges death as the ‘insurmountable truth’.