Twilight Zone

Well this has nothing to do with supernatural or the bizzare or close encounters of the 3rd or greater denominations of any kind, I just thought of the 'end of the day' and came up with this name.

But one thing that does come up in my mind when I say twilight is the routine followed by my wonderful thoughtful neighbours. My neighbourhood is not a posh one but the one luxury most of the residents have not denied themselves is to have a pet and that too a pet dog. You can see huge Labs, silly Pomeranians and skinny terriers in the twilight near our apartment. Did I say a Chihuahua? No way, could be a mongrel. They all come with great punctuality for a walk and mainly for that one necessary thing, to do their toilet for which they have unanimously chosen our gate and the front face of the wall. So if anyone would visit us at this twilight zone, I would definitely like to remind them that "The Poop is Out There!!"

I do ramble a lot these days! Last week our family went through a loss of a loved one and though I could never could attend the funeral, our prayers and well wishes were always with the family of the lost. The best thing is they could understand our situation pretty well...

This got me some instances where twilight had hung over certain families.


My mother once went with her prayer group friends to attend a funeral of an old lady who was our neighbour and a regular at the local prayer group. She was a lovely cheerful prayerful lady who had made many friends during her stay in Trivandrum. She hailed from central Kerala and hence her funeral was to be held in her home there. After a long drive through countless rubber plantations, Mommy and her friends stepped out of the car and were ushered into the home of the deceased. She couldn't believe her eyes as she saw more of a happy family reunion than a mourning family. Cousins were flocking together to play tricks, aunts were talking about their house under construction or the latest design in their sari, someone was trying the perfume, others arranging flowers in their hair while some were getting dressed up for the 'occasion'. As mommy took sometime to get used to the unusual spectacle, one of the grandchildren of the sweet lady, who is now lying down peacefully in her deathbed, came running to mommy and urged her to follow as they were about to take pictures. What followed was more fitting for wedding or engagement as relatives flocked near the coffin to strike pose for the pictures. Video camera too whirred with flashlights and the whole scene proved too much for my poor mother!

My brother once told me that his friend was excited that it was his grandfather's funeral. The reason he gave was he could play movie songs throughout the night in the tape deck as part of the function!!

Then there was another occasion where the daughters and daughters-in-law took it upon themselves to prove who is more affectionate of the deceased. They eyed and outcried each other while the prayer went on with their mother in the coffin. They were also heard judging each other based on the decibel level they each could achieve!

The other day, I visited a friend of mine and as we chatted over tea, she brought up few photo albums to update me on her life. I flipped through the snaps and she explained the context or introduced her extended family. As I was going through an album of a fun trip, suddenly the picture of an old frail female, eyes closed, body stiff, swathed in white clothes, lying in a coffin with cotton balls stuffed in her nose appeared among the snaps. I stopped, was taken aback but my friend unabashedly told me that its her husband's favourite grandaunt who passed away recently. And for her memory's sake he had it put up in the album!! Incredible, I thought, I would have wanted a smiling cheerful snap of my favourite whoever for keepsake, even if they are no more, not the one that would daily remind me of the demise. Looked more like a soothing reminder of the end of a tyrant to me!!