This is the fourth daily post of this special week.
Never did I imagine, remotely even, that post-mortem reports would form a substantial part of my job-related reading. On a typical day I get to read at least half a dozen post mortem reports. It isn’t that I have to do it compulsorily. I have this habit of reading everything that comes to my table even if they are reports relating to deaths in accidents. I simply cannot resist reading anything that can be read even if it is just a pamplet about home tuitions. I want to read it from top to bottom. Also, I have to confess to a morbid curiosity to know how someone died. Frankly speaking, reading those reports is depressing especially when the reports happen to be those of children.
When someone who is below the poverty line dies an unnatural death in accidents and the like the state government pays fifty thousand rupees ex-gratia to the next of kin. That amount comes from our department. As soon as the accident happens the local officials release the money and later send the details to us for reimbursement. Among the details they forward are the post-mortem report and the FIR filed by the police. The FIRs are a category apart written they are in the language only cops know. It happens to be my job to go through such details before forwarding the papers for approval by the bosses.
Reading about the deaths of adults in road accidents etc doesn’t particularly have any effect but there are certain deaths that cause a lot of anguish. Entire families seem to perish in accidents in our country. Two that I cannot forget are the deaths of families that drowned while the country boat they were traveling in capsized in a river in spate. The other was about a family that died in a road accident. This accident took place on the road that I used to take to Suryapet. Going through the list of names, the details of their age, the injuries they suffered is enough to cause a lot of mental turmoil. I wonder how those members of the family who were lucky to survive would cope with the loss of their loved ones. The day I read about such deaths of families I cannot think normally. Those are the days I wish I wasn’t so addicted to reading.
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4 comments:
Detached reading. It can get quite depressing. The thing about death however is its inevitability. And we can only hope that those who have finished their work here move on to a nicer, happier world without regrets. I heard somewhere, that most times the soul is held back by nothing else except the grief of those it leaves behind - a good case for not grieving and instead celebrating their choice to leave. Maybe Vinod bhai, you could send up a small prayer at the end of each report you read for the departed soul.
Will start praying...
Dear Vinod, may i know you are working with which department and is the amt.50000 as ex-gratia is paid by all states in India?
Ravi, I am at present in the Disaster Management Department. Different states have different amuounts of ex-gratia. For deaths in natural calamities the ex-gratia is one lakh. Hope the information is useful.
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