Friday, December 08, 2006

Death comes calling alone!

A man goes camping into the wild with his family for some quiet time. A drive away from the madness of city life, they ventured deeper into the wilderness, where GPS and cell phones were rendered useless without signals. A mixture of extreme weather got the family trapped in the heavy snow. The community begins a search involving helicopters, snow mobiles, four wheel drives, river rafts and searchers on foot but to no avail. The man's family is found alive in the car after 7 incredible days of being trapped in it. After an even more extensive search and they find the man's body. He had tried to walk back to civilization against all odds to find help for his family.

This is a not a movie plot rather the true story of James Kim, Senior Editor for CNET.com

He was one man who was connected to the wired world at every step of the way. James Kim was a respected expert on cutting-edge digital devices, an owner of a trendy clothing store and a lover of the futuristic-sounding music known as electronica. No number of bloggers in the cyber world or co-ordinated searches in the real world using all the means possible could help him. Death came calling alone. Read the memoriam for James Kim.


This brings into mind another incident which happened some time back, where a doctor travelling between Dubai and Sharjah, had a heart attack in the middle of the traffic and there was no way the ambulance could reach him. His family frantically tried all possible means in the unending river of traffic. The emergency yellow lanes were also clogged with vehicles trying to get ahead! It was a death trap. The doctor's life ebbed away in the midst of thousands of people but there was nothing which could help him there.


Several questions can be raised as to why the families or the individuals did not do this or that, several alternatives can be discussed from the warmth of our homes - however the two lives cannot be replaced.


For moment, we should reflect the aura of invincibility which we all have with the mobiles, pda's, laptops, GPS systems and whatever we carry to be connected. These are mere gadgets and there is a saying - "Death never takes the wise man by surprise; He is always ready to go" ~Jean de La Fontaine. In the end death comes calling alone!


Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality
~Emily Dickinson

1 comment:

Free Mind said...

Hey dg,
Thanks for the compliment!