The art of dying

The art of dying
Sreelatha Menon

Death seems so easy in Kerala. Almost as if it were a way of life. Justanother way to breathe. Exhale instead of inhale. They are all embracing it just as easily and almost as subconsciously as the dead peacocks did in Morena. Just peck a poisoned grain and die. But in Kerala the art of dying as well as the desire to die seem to have been perfected. Almost every neighbourhood has a story of suicide. A doctor couple in a well in Palakkad; an old woman in a noose over a property dispute in Irinjalakuda.

But suicides are now old news though not a day passes without at least halfa dozen suicides being reported. Now the Keralite's affair with death seems to have found a new mode, or a new context for expression, with starvation deaths which are suddenly being zealously reported by newspapers in the state, much to the glee of the Congress-led opposition. Here the formula for dying is simple in that there is no formula at all.

Just turn off the lights. Turn off food, little by little. Not that you have to make an effort to do this. When there is no money you just stop buying food. Take this man in my neighbourhood in Anchery in Thrissur. Now let me tell you that nobody reported it as a starvation death. He was just 51. He was ill. He and his wife depended on the money they got from selling whatever coconut they grew. Plus interest from some petty amount deposited in the bank. They got about Rs 500 each month.

And even that was not assured. Death has sent blight to the coconuts, in addition to which most palms are falling prey to a disease called Mandari. While coconut prices have gone down, bank interest rates have gone down too.

But the man, as I said, was ill. His limbs were swollen and he could not move. Whatever medicines they did buy for him did not seem to help. No one will know what that very respectable couple ate for lunch and dinner. The end of the story is that the man died and now his wife is also ill.

So these are the starvation deaths. After drought, the best bet for anyambitious reporter to sharpen his skills on.

Death, now seemingly the most sought after deity among Kerala's numerousgods and saints, has even been trying to waggle itself some of the halo ofthe divine. For there has been a trend for some time for its devotees tobook themselves in hotels, near some shrine like Guruvayoor in Thrissurdistrict, and take off to heaven with lethal doses of insecticides, as if their deaths were offerings to the temple.

While newspapers have stories of entire families ending their lives due topoverty almost on a daily basis, the strangest thing is that one does not find a single beggar on the streets. The poor choose to die rather than beg. While page three in Delhi newspapers is reserved for the party set, page three in Kerala is always full of deaths. Of suicides and more suicides. And now of stories of `starvation deaths'.

It is just too many peacocks dying in Kerala this monsoon in a state wherethere are no peacocks. What chemical could have poisoned their food? Especially when they seem to be having little to eat? Ask the Keralite. And he would say that it is a political campaign. "People have always been starving and making do with little. Now all of a sudden they are snooping around for anyone dying in his or her middle age. Don't believe them," says a 70-year-old man, himself struggling along with his wife to make ends meet. "If one of us falls ill, we will also have nothing to eat. But whose fault is it?" the couple asks. One has to choose between hunger and disease.

And some have to choose between dishonour and death. Anyway, no one seems to be hearing the muffled cries of these dying peacocks. Except perhaps for themonsoons which are drumming down their tiles rhythmically like the templedrums which used to beat to the cries of animal sacrifices in the past.