The news came like news always does these days. Casually. Between a cricket score and a discount sale. Someone powerful is suddenly no more. Not someone I supported. Not someone whose speeches I memorised. But someone who mattered in the larger scheme of things. Someone who occupied space in the national consciousness. Someone who had arrived.
And that is what makes it unsettling.
To see a person taken away at the height of influence is disturbing. Not because they were perfect. Not because they were loved by all. But because it reminds us how flimsy our own sense of permanence is. We build castles in the air and then forget that air has no foundation.
We spend a lifetime climbing. Climbing careers. Climbing social ladders. Climbing political hierarchies. Climbing bank balances. We sweat. We struggle. We scheme. We sacrifice sleep. We postpone family. We postpone joy. We postpone goodness. All for that shimmering word called success.
And then one wrong turn of a steering wheel. One slippery bathroom floor. One falling tree. One silent clot. One blank heartbeat.
Finished.
It is both terrifying and liberating.
Terrifying because we realise how little control we have over the final act.
Liberating because it exposes how much control we actually have over everything before it.
Death does not ask for your résumé. Death does not check your party affiliation. Death does not care about your Instagram following. Death does not pause to admire your corner office.
Death arrives with brutal equality.
Which raises an uncomfortable question.
If the end is so unpredictable, why are we so predictable in chasing the wrong things.
Why do we spend more time polishing our image than examining our character?
Why do we invest more in appearing successful than in being decent?
Why do we fear losing status more than losing our soul?
Legacy is a strange word.
Most people imagine legacy as buildings named after them. Awards. Statues. Scholarships. Headlines.
But for the vast majority of humanity, legacy is far simpler. It is how you made people feel.
Did people feel safe around you? Did people feel heard? Did people feel respected? Did people feel less alone?
Or did people feel smaller after meeting you?
Were you known for kindness or for crushing?
For generosity or for grabbing?
For humility or for arrogance?
For lifting or for trampling?
These are not philosophical questions meant for a Sunday sermon.
These are practical questions. Because while we cannot schedule death, we can schedule decency.
We cannot control the length of life, but we can control its depth. We cannot choose how we exit, but we can choose how we walk.
Every day we are quietly writing our own obituary. Not with words.
With behaviour. With tone. With choices.
With silence when we should speak. With courage when it is inconvenient. With kindness when no one is watching.
Perhaps the real tragedy is not sudden death. The real tragedy is living long and leaving nothing gentle behind.
So when news breaks of a powerful person suddenly gone, maybe it is not time only for shock.
Maybe it is time for inventory. Not of assets. But of attitudes.
Not of achievements. But of actions.
Because in the end, the only thing we truly carry forward is the imprint we leave on other hearts.
Everything else stays behind, sometimes in the debris of a plane crash…!
The Author conducts an online, eight session Writers and Speakers Course. If you’d like to join, do send a thumbs-up to WhatsApp number 9892572883 or send a message to bobsbanter@gmail.com
