Based on a true incident (unfortunately)!

“The biggest lie that we are taught is that we die only once.”

Table of Content
 ∘ The beginning of the end
 ∘ How the court room drama unfolds?
 ∘ The unfortunate incident
 ∘ The spooky incident that made me question everything!

The beginning of the end

What was once a happy family — was now stripping each other naked in the courtroom.

The reason — our grandfather had died leaving us a generous inheritance but without a will. And what ensued was a never-ending feud among his children. However hard I may try to hide this, the fact remains that I was a party to this heinous feud, and I truly feel ashamed for this.

Try an experiment — dangle a bone in front of a dog for long, only to take it away at the last minute, and give it to another dog. You would see the cutest fur babies at their worst behaviors.

What makes you think that humans are any different?

Our grandfather wanted to raise his kids as perfect human beings, only for them to end up fighting like cats and dogs. Affectionate greetings had soon transformed into derogatory looks, with occasional cuss words behind their backs. It came to a point where a single sight of each other was unacceptable, and we would never let go of any opportunity to bad mouth others in front of the entire community.

How the courtroom drama unfolds?

The courtroom by definition itself does not give any weightage to what is ethically correct. It all boils down to what can be proven lawfully correct.

You pay your life savings to the best-dressed lawyers whose only job is to strip naked the other party. What follows is a series of controversial, aggressive, derogatory, and often inhumane arguments and counterarguments. History of drug abuse, character assassination, how someone had been a better son and deserves more money — you hear your loved ones make arguments in court that you would even hesitate to say to a stranger. Safe to say that a court trial brings out the worst in the best of humans.

In no time, our family feud was the talk of the town. And everyone had started taking sides — not based upon logic, but which side can be more relevant to you in the near future. All the indecent things that had been spoken in the court of law, were now out in the public. Once a respectable family was now ridiculed in every house. Not only did we lose all of our reputation, but we also dented the name of our forefathers because of this disgraceful feud. Such was the impact that I did not want to step out of the house for almost two years.

As months passed, we realized we had been paying more money to the lawyers for character assassination than what we might benefit from a favorable ruling. But who cares about money anymore? It was a matter of pride, and there is no price tag you can attach to the pride of ignorant mad men.

The unfortunate incident

Life would have easily been spent fighting, until my uncle from the opposing side of the courtroom, suffered an untimely death. Let’s call him ‘J’. However, sad it might have been for the family, but the court case went on without fail.

It was during these times that I realized money is above all. Love, humanity and compassion are good to uphold, as long as money is not in the equation. The moment money enters the equation, all other variables lose their value.

No inner voice, however righteous and strong, can beat the lust for the dangling bone.

The spooky incident that made me question everything!

As days passed, our life was now synonymous with the trial. Whatever may be the eventual outcome of the trial, I realized we all would be losers. But someone would be a bigger loser, and nobody wanted to be that.

Such was the impact of this entire incident, that it had entered my subconscious mind, and I would constantly be thinking about the same.

As the trial progressed, one fine night, Uncle ‘J’ came to my dream. Sitting on the floor with his head covered behind his knees and crying profusely. Just as he saw me standing there, he said the following:

“The biggest lie we have been taught is that we only die once.

Every time, someone recounts my bad deeds, I die the same death again — only more painful and more gruesome. So shall you, and so shall every other human being.

During our lives, we often justify our bad actions as a retaliation to someone’s else adverse deed. That is not how things work over here. My bad actions cannot justify yours, and a bad deed is simply a bad deed.

Remember, I failed to understand this, but you do not make the same mistake.

Make amends while you still have time.”

I immediately woke up in the middle of the night, deeply thinking about what had just conspired. Emotional or scared or simply shocked — I still don’t know what I was feeling.

As emotions subsided, it became clear to me where I had been wrong all along. It is always easier to be nice when there are rosy pictures all around. A man’s true color surfaces only in the face of adversities. And to be honest, this incident did not bring the best out of me.

Till date, I continue to remember my shortcomings, acknowledge that I was wrong too, and learn from the same. It has been among the steepest learning curves of my life, but safe to say it is a long road ahead and miles to go before I sleep.

The court case went on for a while until we all came to our senses and agreed to settle it outside the court. However, the negotiations have still been ongoing, and the settlement is far from over.

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