A few years ago, India witnessed a hanging!
Between the hangman and the media, the late Dhnanjoy Chatterjee was made a hero before he died and a martyr after his death. Hangman Nata Mullick who executed the rapist and murderer fell sick after coming out of Alipore Jail and said that he couldn’t get over the last words of the murderer who blessed him and forgave him for the hanging that he was about to do!
His last words were not about repenting for the heinous crime, or feeling sorrowful for the family who had lost their teenaged daughter; his last words were one of a self-righteous hypocrite! Strangely unlike many of us, the late Dhananjoy was a lucky man; he knew when he was going to die. He had a chance to say sorry to those he had wronged and to ask forgiveness from his God.
I have my doubts he did either.
Most of us will never get this chance to be prepared for death. Death will come silently and swiftly and take us away before we have a chance to get ourselves right with those we have been unjust with, and to a God who has loved us despite the kind of people we have been.
There is an old story of a jester who sometimes made very wise utterances. One day, the jester had said something so foolish that the king, handing him a staff, said to him, “Take this, and keep it till you find a bigger fool than yourself.”
Some years later, the king was very ill, and lay on his deathbed. His courtiers were called; his family and his servants also stood round his bedside. The king, addressing them, said, “I am about to leave you. I am going on a very long journey, and I shall not return again to this place: so I have called you all to say “Goodbye”.
Then his jester stepped forward and, addressing the king, said, “Your Majesty, may I ask a question? When you journeyed abroad visiting your people, staying with your nobles, or paying diplomatic visits to other courts, your heralds and servants always went before you, making preparations for you. May I ask what preparations your majesty has made for this long journey that he is about to take?”
“Alas!” replied the king, “I have made no preparations.”
“Then,” said the jester, “Take this staff with you, for now I have found a bigger fool than myself!”
I would like to end this piece with an epitaph C.S. Lewis saw on a grave:
Here lies an atheist, All dressed up but with nowhere to go..!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
A good piece of writing. Death is a certainty as sure as taxes. Like it is said: a good death is its own reward.
Death, one Truth no one denie. However very few r ready for. Every moment of Life is a Bonus. So when the Reaper comes along. We should say, Here am I, Lord.
Thank you for the question profound, interesting story and reminder of the rapist who murdered the girl cold bloodedly who could like David have said to God in repentence, ‘Against Thee and Thee alone OGod have I sinned.’Bullying was put a stop to byJesus. So bullies hatedHim and had Him put
to death unjustly brutally.
Well said,death comes like a thief.There is life after death ,with Almighty.
When death is near,one starts to thinks ,how short life is.