Part 1- Obituary to Self: Journey of the Living
Tripta Sharma, Retired Principal
“In the earlier part of Tripta's life, she used to fear death. Wondering how her near and dear ones would live after her, hoping they would not grieve too much and feel sad and that she would not be in a position to take care of them at that time. As she kept getting older, she began moving towards spiritualism especially after her husband's passing on. She began to realize that the body is merely a receptacle in which the soul resides and fear of death started leaving her.
Tripta had often mulled over the details of her funeral, like how many people would be there for her cremation, but of course, none of that matters to her now. She described her last years as a feeling of being in a waiting room of sorts, never certain at what age and time it would end, but glad that she wouldn't be dependent on anyone any longer when it did. She still cared about her health, still treasured her body like the temple that it was in which the soul resided. She will be remembered for the same affection she held for her near and dear ones.
Tripta did not wish for any ceremony or long lasting rituals after she was gone. Her only desire was that as her body leaves her home on its final journey, she must be accompanied by the chanting sounds of ‘AUM’.”
Natascha Charak, Designer and Stylist
"She tried.”
Suzanne Stein, Innovation Professor
“Suzanne Stein passed away unexpectedly but gently in her sleep. She leaves her two birth children, as well as siblings (XXXX and XXXX), who she loved and welcomed into her home from their early adult life. Suzanne will be missed by her sisters, nieces and and nephews. Suzanne was a friend and mentor to many. A respected Academic and Consultant, she applied herself to social positive change for today and tomorrow. Suzanne pioneered methods for insight and innovation, leaving legacies in the fields of Applied Ethnography and Strategic Foresight. Although dedicated to her work in exploring applied methods to create better futures, her first priority was always to her four children. Her home, office and laboratory, embodied her remarkable essence: a warm combination of generosity, playfulness and energy. She held open the space for possibility and invited us all in.”
Saransh Sharma, Behaviour Architect
"A ripple in the space-time continuum occurred on a damp rock orbiting a mid-sized nuclear gas giant located on the outer edge of an arm of a spiral galaxy, part of one of the many galactic superclusters that formed the space-time hyper-ripple that this ripple was a minuscule part of. The ripple itself emerged out of the self-organisation of a complex dynamic system of many tinier sub-ripples. The ripple lasted for a duration close to the radioactive half life of an atom with 28 protons and 35 neutrons. The ripple vibrated in a complex recursive pattern almost thirty five thousand times, with each rotation of the damp rock around its axis.
Now, the fundamental fractal structure of the hyper-ripple resonated across all scales of time and space, but it is to be noted that some of the intricate details of it were exclusively observable from the frame of reference of this ripple. And the word around is that they were sublime!
Although, the ripple doesn't exist anymore, the complex interference patterns that it created while interacting with other ripples at it's scale still persist, and may never die, but just evolve into more complex patterns, that forever and at all scales resonate with the fundamental fractal structure of the hyper-ripple."
Shivani Gupta, Design Researcher and Poet
"She was 23, forever fighting the image of being a “23 year old”.
To have her immortalized at that age seems only fitted, her love for cosmic jokes and all.
She died in a plane, in the rain, somewhere between the clouds.
We can’t know for certain, but we imagine she must have held more peoples’ hands, given away more hugs and comforted more strangers than most of us would in a lifetime.
Her sanitizer must have emptied itself trying to deal with all the germs from this ‘caring’ of people who may or may not have washed their hands with the fervor and dedication she always did – maybe she stopped caring in the end. Embraced them germs too.
She loved the rain, turbulence in planes made her sleepy she said, like a rocking chair or a travelling train or the arms of a lover.
She also loved her dog more than life itself; her parents, her family, her people, like an extension of herself.
She was on her way to them, on her way home."
Olabiyi Dipeolu, Consultant
"Olabiyi Adeolu Olusegun Alani Dipeolu was his name. He believed in God, family, friends & himself. He loved. His heart was broken. He succeeded. He failed. He lost. He gained. He experienced love & happiness. He experienced pain & disappointment. He might have lost battles, but he won the war. He won. His name is Olabiyi Adeolu Olusegun Alani Dipeolu."