death, funerals,crocodile tears..

I just came back from doing "afsos"..the punjabi way of giving condolences when someone passes away. We all do it, are guilty of mumbling words of sympathy and shedding tears ;whilst remembering our own pain.

She sat there mute , eyes swollen with tears, her fingers rhythmically pleating her shawl as if this repetitive exercise would free her from the cudgels of life and death. For the family, they had lost a son, a brother , an uncle to many , loved by the village folk . She , who had to hide all her sorrows of him being an alcoholic, a wife-beater had to enshrine him forever to the highest levels of

saint-hood.

I wondered, when we all walked away, was she trapped for eternity or had she been set free by her husband's death? Would we the society let her rejoice freedom or would we condemn her to a life of stricter rules??