The very first day I started walking I saw the pretty Funeral Chapel. I don’t really remember seeing one in any of the places I visited in North America. It’s a charming little chapel with plenty of deep yellow Lilium flowers, sitting right at the T-junction of 3^rd Street & South Pete Ellis Drive, facing MacDonald & KFC. Besides the two restaurants there are many other eateries. I have no idea if the restaurants came first or the chapel first… just kidding.

It stood there as if to remind the general public to drive carefully & eat wisely. I was thinking it’s a cute little place to say final good bye if the soul is still hovering around. However I never saw any vehicle there or in their parking lot. So either it’s not functional or the death rate less because of the signal the chapel sends to general public. We both ourselves walked 8 to 10 kilometers daily in some way or the other. Perhaps God almighty gave them long life because of the lower crime rate… I remembered the sunglasses on the grass in the parking lot as well as the mobile kept leaning the tree.

It was very different from the one I saw at Indianapolis which was next to a cemetery & seemed never ending. I have no idea if the cemetery is really big or I imagined it. My husband was busy concentrating on my daughter’s driving, somewhat like back seat driving & my daughter was nervous between GPS direction & father’s watchful eye & me in my own world!!

I have seen funeral chapels in movies & TV shows & someone had posted a video showcasing some kind of figures appearing in the chapel as if they have come to watch the mass. People sometimes create either a scary or nice thing attached to death or ghost. It’s a different thing to understand. I remembered my childhood where we used to roam around the grave yard collecting some berries or fruits but in the night would refuse to sleep near the window or go to bathroom with our escort. Strangely in young mind always the night is attached to ghost. Now I have grown out of the fear after realizing birth & death are the two faces of the same coin & we have to die if we like it or not & that it’s all predestined.

Life is simple for us to understand & it’s unfolding right in front of our eyes. We die thousands of times in our lifetimes!! Wondering what I am talking about? Every day when are asleep we are as good as dead, although we are still breathing & have utility repair work going on. We are alive but not aware of what is happening around us. The sense shops are closed for the day with the shutter down. That’s what the scriptures say: When you sleep you go to your seat of origin, from where you come from- the God almighty. That’s why the sleep always refreshes you & energies you & no matter what, no one wants to be deprived of sleep. Likewise death is just change of garb from one worn-out body to another. Yet everyone is afraid of death & if only we had control over death… LoL. Someone had sent me this interesting forward:

One day Yama Raja (Lord of death in Hinduism) came to a man & said: Hey today is your last day!

Man: But I am not ready & so many things are pending, no way I could go with you.

Yama Raja said: Well today your name is the first on my list…

Man: Okay, then why don’t you take a seat & we will take a COFFEE before we go?

Yama Raja said: Alright your last wish I can’t say no & also coffee.. the aroma is tantalizing…

Man gave Yama Raja COFFEE with sleeping pill in it.

Yama Raja finished COFFEE & fell into a deep sleeeeep/slumber

Happily Man….. took the list & removed his name from top of the list & put at the bottom of the list.

When Yama Raja woke up he said to the Man: Because you have been so nice to me, now I will start my job from the BOTTOM of the list… did I bring a smile to your lips?

Practically every other day we walked past the chapel & I was curious to go inside but I was not sure if I could go inside just like that out of curiosity & also some time there a is belief that one will be jinxed if they are thinking of such places..

Every time my husband dragged me… let us see some other time but that some other time never came… “You always make trouble for me… someone is definitely going to send you to Sherif’s office!!”