The millisecond between life and death,
consciousness and unconsciousness,
sense and senselessness,
reality and magic,
one foot in life, the other out
sequestered from everyone, blind to the humdrum of life,
eyes closed,
when I saw no tunnel of light,
heard no angels singing,
perceived no bells ringing,
no, I couldn’t catch any gongs of heaven and hell drumming.
After this naked encounter with the slipping world,
when in the midst of life, death hovered,
slowly and slowly I began to recover from the haze of anaesthesia,
the world still appearing nebulous,
my journey uncertain, perilous….
In the midst of it all, I felt the warmth of his touch,
and then heard a tiny fly hover around my head.
This is when I feebly smiled,
for now, I knew how special it was to be alive!
Sangeeta Kampani, 63, was formerly with the IRS and retired as Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi.
Featured image: Pawel Czerwinski / Unsplash