Binny Sharma

Being at someone’s cremation changes view towards life. We craft our whole life to please others. Entertain or appease others. At cremation ground, when the body isn’t even halfway burnt, the skin has just started to melt and peel, people start talking business and work among themselves. No matter how young or old you die. People there are not unkind - they love you, they miss you. But detachment just comes naturally and almost immediately. It is boring to watch the body burn. It takes long. It gets hot in the day. There are office calls to answer. The moment life goes out, it is just a pile of flesh and bones. Not a person anymore. They start calling it body. Body ko bandho, body par ghee daalo, body ko uthao. And then the crematorium staff steps in whose job is to cut and crush the leftover bones. He does this to hundreds of charred bodies per day. His earplugs are blasting some latest bollywood song. You watch and feel nothing. No one cries. It’s late for work. Next body is waiting.