Is living is a boon and death is a curse? Must be; that is the reason we all want to live for hundred years with our kith, kin and friends in good health and spirits with functions and consciousness. Here by consciousness I do not mean the ‘moral’ but physical. Then sure, life is bliss.

But, when one loses his/her faculty of consciousness and almost dead? Is she or he not equivalent to a dead body? What is the purpose of living without understanding and feeling anything?

That was what has happened to Nurse Aruna Shanbag for the past not one or two years, but 42 very long years. Her survival has created a history in many ways. It filled all the news headlines, coverage of one page on most of the newspapers and magazines, whipped up discussions on mercy killing. KEM Hospital would have kept her ‘alive’ for another 42 or more years had she not died a natural death even now.

India differs from other nations in many ways. They always cover their activities with a cultural tags and philosophic connotations. On one hand we preach ‘family’ is the ultimate for a human but on the other hand we cry hoarse for relinquishing the desires of life and lead an ascetic life after an age.

We contradict ourselves as much as possible. We try to make our lives more complex to the best of our abilities. The government, laws and courts are supporters to all our miseries and pleasures because they all go by popular views or backed by power and money;  a country which practices ‘true democracy’.

A rape and physical assault victim had to live a life of a vegetable for more than four decades a life unworthy of anything except justified the India’s vague concept of ‘passive euthanasia’.

Was Aruna Shanbag a sinner or blessed soul? Her life was a blessing or curse?

I will be satisfied if someone gives me a logical answer.