The last letter of the economist and scholar Bibbec de Broglie
October 31st is the Diwali holiday. So, the newspaper didn’t arrive the next morning. The next day, when I got the English newspaper “The Indian Express” and flipped through it, my attention was caught by an obituary. You know, an obituary – an article written immediately after a person’s death that attempts to honor his memory by outlining his life. Usually written by someone else and read by a third person.
But the title of the obituary published in the newspaper on November 2 was – “He wrote his own obituary – there is a world out there… What would happen if I wasn’t there?”
How Aalim Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Council of Economic Advisers, felt the sound of death in his final moments, and before leaving this world, his final thoughts were written down on paper. This article was written by himself and after his death. What greater will can there be than this? Seeing the courage and foresight to write an obituary for myself reminded me of an article I saw in the American newspaper The New York Times two months ago.
The article by American professor and author Kelly McMasters is titled – “Why I write my own obituary once a year.”
Kelly wrote in her article that she first wrote an obituary when she was twelve years old. The idea of ​​writing her own obituary entered Professor Sahiba’s life through her mother. His mother took care of terminally ill patients, and he was asked to write his own obituary. In it you have to write about yourself, the age of your family, the world after you, your job and other achievements, and finally how you will be remembered.
What Professor Kelly said in his article was published in a newspaper, along with another quote. First, people are hesitant to talk about death. They may talk about others for a while, but when it comes to their own death, they bite their tongues. But Bibek de Broglie expressed it in a different way.
Quotes from the last letter of the late Bibek de Broglie
In an article sent to The Indian Express four days before his death, he wrote, After spending more than a month in a private room at the AIIMS Cardiac Care Center (CCU), I have been discharged… The world outside has taken a toll on me It has shrunk to part of a window in my room. I could see a pipe going to the outside of the building. Every morning, the monkey ritually climbs up…
It can be seen from the article that besides his wife Suparna, there is also a man named Harish who is taking care of him. He wrote – …things had become limited to asking Harish to bring a toilet. Sometimes, even the bed is dirty. Apart from the parameters of shame and humility, it is just a piece of meat on the bed.
On one side are the final moments of Bebek de Broglie, and on the other side is a parallel world. They feel this when they are transported from one place to another. He writes: Sometimes in a wheelchair or on a hospital trolley…I was carried from building to building, through bright sunshine, birds in the green trees, and people. There is a world out there. What happens if I’m not here? …
There are some dialogues that will leave you speechless. Every pore in the body becomes erect. For example – a new book is published. Do you want to read it? Supanna asked. The author of this book is Ken Jennings. The title is – 100 Places Worth Seeing After Death. We looked at each other and smiled…how ridiculous! Although I can read, I don’t want to read. Although I could watch TV, I didn’t want to. The same boring news, the same boring and noisy debates…
I don’t know when, in that hymn, a brief thought came to my ears – the bud of life is fleeting, it may bloom tomorrow morning, or it may not bloom/The purity of Malayachar is cool , the fragrance does not mix with the breeze. . The late Bibec de Broglie was in close contact with him in his final days and observed him with a witnessing attitude. When he wrote these words—…everything seemed fleeting and childish. But I am also so fleeting and childish.
He also thought about what would happen after he left his physical body.
Wrote – …What would have happened in that event? … There will be some condolences, and perhaps this is also written on behalf of someone important—an irreparable loss. Maybe he will posthumously award Padmasambhava or Vibhushan Padmasambhava. A few tributes could have been given…which one would people mention? Who remembers the trade-related jobs of the 1980s, the legal reforms of the 1990s, the jobs of the 2000s, the railway reforms of 2015 and even the resignation from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology in 2005? There is nothing original about such work.
And then he writes – …I also played a role in the rat race, which was read haphazardly, forgotten, buried in compilations of newspapers and magazines…
How correct do they think it is to say “irreparable loss” at age 70? They will also think about what social value they can bring in the next ten years. In the whirlwind of thoughts, he no longer thought about it all. That being said – it’s very complicated to think about it all. Nida Fazli came to my mind while reading his words – Is it a puppet or is it life, carry on living, don’t think/ The whole mess is due to thinking, carry on living, don’t think . Even though I know this is the result of a single thought.
What loss will be caused by the death of Bebek de Broglie? He also asked himself this question. It is said that-…this is not a social loss, not much at all. Yes, personal injury may occur. But for whom? My son went abroad after graduation. Now he is more American than Indian…Suparna will suffer a personal loss. It doesn’t matter to anyone else.
Time is spent wondering what is important and what is not. The body died about seven o’clock on Friday morning. Respect!
