Off Park Circus in Calcutta, down Zakaria Road, lies a Hindu cemetery. (Yes, some Hindus do get buried, not cremated.)
That’s where He was buried exactly 13 years ago, to this day.
His father didn’t even see His face, just held the little lifeless bundle, lost to the family, wrapped in cloth. Joy turned into almost instant, inexplicable despair.
Nor did he go to the graveyard. He couldn’t. The boy hadn’t survived more than 20 minutes after His birth. But the living needed looking after.
So the father didn’t bury Him; His uncles did.
Was it Billy Joel who sang “Only the good die young”?
Try explaining this to His grandmother, whose birthday it also is today. Or to the wife who carried him within her all those nine months?
That’s where He was buried exactly 13 years ago, to this day.
His father didn’t even see His face, just held the little lifeless bundle, lost to the family, wrapped in cloth. Joy turned into almost instant, inexplicable despair.
Nor did he go to the graveyard. He couldn’t. The boy hadn’t survived more than 20 minutes after His birth. But the living needed looking after.
So the father didn’t bury Him; His uncles did.
Was it Billy Joel who sang “Only the good die young”?
Try explaining this to His grandmother, whose birthday it also is today. Or to the wife who carried him within her all those nine months?
Tell me, Mr Joel: if the good do die young, is it the bad that die old?
