"Everything passes away save the face of God" we are told. In a story of Hazrat Saadi (RA) illustrating this truism, the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni --- emerged from his grave to find that his huge kingdom now belonged to someone else. Hazrat Saadi consolingly commented, else where "Do not rely upon the world, for many it nurtured and many killed".
But you would have expected that if you couldn't get your own home in this world, your own space, life, kids, husband, wife at least you'd have your own last resting place -away from encroachers, intruders, invaders. Where no one could push you out and claim and dispute you over.
Well! Think again. Another Sufi tale warns us that there is no guarantee for even that last resting place as a saintly personage's last resting place, inscribed by the axiom, "This too shall pass," is also swept away by flood water. So, too, in these current, out-of- joint times that last consolation is gone. For graveyards are no longer those peaceful dwelling places from the days of yore, to rest in peaceful slumber. At least on the face of things, for what goes on within the depths, the punishments and rewards, we don't know.
Mirroring the haphazard, claustrophobically crowded and indisciplined lives of the cities, the graveyards are in a mangled state of pell-mell confusion. Anarchy reigns supreme. Graves unwashed, primed with layers of soot, rub shoulders and jostle each other for space, shrouded by equally dusty, dense, drab trees and overgrown and teeming with mosquito-infested shrubs and undergrowth.-'the unweeded garden,' where in the absence of order, everything rank and gross is allowed to grow and flourish. The graveyards are as chaotic as life above. There are no defined spaces for graves, dead bodies are strewn here and there on pathways, overlapping, on top of each other and in God knows, how many layers. So much for the privacy and luxury of having one's own grave.
Does that mean that we shall have to face the ignominy of others watching and sharing our punishment as our graves are straitened and expanded? Or that we shall have to share in our grave-mates torment as he/she is punished? Only God knows. But at least the worldly authorities can do their part and ensure that the sanctity of one's grave is not violated, and some one's grave not reopened to bury someone else for the sake of money. If nothing else, for fear of their own graves, where one day, or the other they too have to return.
The trip to this Tariq Road graveyard is not very salubrious or edifying, allowing one to reflect on the transience on life and our own selves. A huge tomb- mosque structure overhangs the teeming graveyard through which one has to gingerly pick one's way, skipping and jumping over myriad graves, begging a million apologies of its dwellers till one reaches the destined one. To find it an amorphous mass of green, grey. Pay Rs 5 and Rs 10 to the innumerable children following you to have it somewhat cleared of the dust, while noting the two new neighbours ominously hedging upon your relative.
A hurried 'Fateha' and rush away for there is no place to stand or to even get near the grave and then you are away through the mazelike enclosure. Is there any one exercising authority or is the place, like an unweeded garden, allowed to grow and expand as it pleases, at the mercy of the corrupt elements? Why don't the visitors or owners of the tombs take charge and sort out the graveyard?
In contrast, the Gora Qabristan is more spaced out and planned with straight pathways intersecting and dividing different areas of graves. Yet neglect and indifference are evident here too. Situated in a low lying area, the graveyard is still inundated with rain water from the monsoon rains, which has still not yet been fully pumped out.
Half of it was overgrown with the insect-infested reeds. If the authorities were so keen about controlling the dengue fever shouldn't they have acted upon and had the water pumped out from these enclosed areas within their control? For such watery places are ideal breeding grounds for the dengue mosquito. The graveyard earns a substantial sum, its surprising why nothing is done to maintain it and pump the water out.
But then why is it surprising? If people, in their selfishly busy lives, have no time to give thought to, or care for the living, how would they spare a thought for the dead? Like any other burden, they too are thrown off and dumped anywhere at the first opportunity to be forgotten and to get on with their lives. After all, as a certain section feels, 'dead men tell no tales'!
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