Eulogies

I have a problem people over-romanticizing the lives of people that just died. There are many many examples to quote, the latest one being Pandit Ravishankar. The Hindu alone published not less than 10 articles by different people — saying different things ranging from “doomsday is here” to “Mayan calendar or not — the world has ended” to “there will never be another sitarist to fill his void” to many other things — that at best make me chuckle.

It all started when I was in 9th grade in school and a school mate of mine, must have within 1 year of my batch, died by drowning. Honestly, I never heard of this guy before the news of his death made it big. What I did hear after the death is that he is an average student and even conduct-wise, he was not the teacher’s most favorite student. His death alone — a sorry event to be sure — made him popular than he ever would have been in life. Teachers were praying, talking about him in praise and what have you — I developed an attitude to double-filter eulogies and post-life praise-talking.

But regardless of this incident, why do we have to over-romanticize? To everyone that wrote those articles in media, my question is — when is the last time you heard Ravishankar? To everyone that claims that the sitar has permanently lost a string — do you know how many strings there are to a sitar? Superficial eulogies irritate me. If the superlatives are personal, I can admit it. But in all other cases, I would much rather be content with an eulogy that goes “I have heard there is someone called Ravishankar and he plays the sitar. I am sorry he died”. Or not even that. I am okay with it.

One guy says on The Hindu, “Ravishankar’s name was heard everywhere — saloons, pan shops and railway stations”. Jeez…he is delusional.