NarMo pitched a great concept to
Bodhgaya. That of
death tourism.
He made the people realize the biggest advantage of being the land of masses, that the living, like they were born, die in masses too. We bloomed, and so we shall wither in the same numbers. That is logic, but many don't get it until he put it so explicitly. He urged people to make death a quality experience, and make money off it. People regardless of religion come to perform last rites in such places, and Bodhgaya must capitalize.
Pitru-paksha is what its called - I don't know much about it since I've not thought of my father or feared death to obsessive levels.
On death: I haven't been living for too long, but I think death is something to think on coming to terms with before you think of an eternity, because it will be the major part of your eternity anyways... The "living" is the in-between part, when you get to decide whether you hate it or not, and how many you find who think similar as you do - to form a cloud of majorly-dead-for-eternity that is denser than the dark matter that surrounds it; and feels warmer inside. There isn't anything to be expected for yourself or towards yourself beyond death, but you damn well hope things continue and the world will be as comfortable as you had imagined for yourself but never achieved, and those comforts would rather be shared among the people that you have made associations with rather than your negation, or the people who never came into your knowledge/understanding.
He promised that even the lowest rung members of the society will profit off this death industry - "bharat 150 carore logon ka desh mai... ...murmure bechne wale ko bhi paise milenge" (i am unsure of the closing words). He promised to make it amenable to last-rites tourist. Well, that was expected to come from him standing as an MLA from Varanasi, the historically-known city where death hangs in the air. Varanasi is at a beautiful confluence, and sadly the enlightenment at offer is most amenable for (Hindu) last rites. It is also existing as a great business model at the same time. Modi promises that.
To digress, if I were a leader with genocidal tendencies, I would be somebody sharing such enthusiasm for death, and work on introducing measures to process the dead quicker and distributing the workload of managing the disposal, and alongside introduce mind control and brainwashing to ensure that things don't blow up when you decimate a specific population. Stuff for science fiction.
What a dark, but industrious way to make people fear death less, and see it as an investment opportunity, and know that their passing away will only bring business and profit to a new generation much like they profited from it. Leadership of the masses is the name of the game.
What a way to drive tourism, too. Most of today's nuclear families (even India's shaping this way) come together at the time of unanticipated deaths. If you promise them a picnic, then surely it will get more numbers to travel, to farther places, of reputed experiences. We'll find families doing great roadtrips in impulsive desire to express their regret for the dead. Regrets live the longest, and capitalize on them at the right time, giving people the opportunity to live them out in an acceptable way, they will yield the most too. What better time than death, to hook people into regret.
"Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because the regret is stronger than gratitude," said Anne Frank.
Dead people might bring more business than the living ones, too.
Maybe we'll have an app that will rate the best death destinations. Families might like to know the ones with shortest ritual times, or ones with lowest visitors because numbers spoil the experience and make it seem artificial. Single men might seek best Tinder destinations for last rites where after a day of 'spirituality' - with death - they can complete the understanding of human experience with life (ahem).
India sure is gaining reputation as a spiritual experience of late, and death, being the final frontier, if turned into an experience, will get more people here for last rites than curing the cancer that is going to kill them. Death tourism over medical tourism. Or maybe death tourism coz of medical tourism. What ever.
Only that I won't like to imagine our highways filled with mourny-but-overwhelmed people cruising regretfully with mourny-families to Varanasi and Bodhgaya. Maybe families start expecting deaths to be regular, so that 'that special time with people from childhood' happens like routine cleansing process.
I wanted different associations with my roads and places, where death will be the least of purposes. My enervation is setting in.
To
opine, what a grim profession to urge people to get into in masses, and not focus on building technical skill and getting into ISRO.
---
And here's a recent update on one of India's god-queens:
"Radhe Maa, who is said to be a big fan of porn star-turned-actress Sunny Leone, recently posed as a model in a mini skirt and asked devotees to pick her up."
Do you know who Radhe Ma is? Nobody does.
One thing I know is that this woman manages to live a convincing life despite such ungraceful and controversial buffoonery. She picks up followers doing this (no pun intended). She has turned into a grandmother doing this. What more, she has only a few trifling legal hassles chasing her, so she might be the longest living glam godqueen species, a unique species, indeed. Radhe Ma is perhaps the only one in the '
glam' sub-genere of 'godqueen' genre. That is why, I christen the subspecies after her, as
M. Radheycus. Sure hope there are cultural historians after such people, after all she has a dominating influence on such masses.
Somebody should introduce her to
Tinder - maybe she'll love it too and later organise mass tinder hookups among followers. My perception is you'll find her followers more on apps like
Whisper, posting regrets and pervy requests of "private friandship".
Posts
