Life After Death

“When I die, I want to be a bird pops, a bird that is, I want to fly the world.”  After watching cartoons and admiring the true beauty of birds hovering, flying, diving, and all else that makes them such a wonder of the world in the sky, I knew right then and there that I want my afterlife to take me to new heights and limits.  We begin to learn about reincarnation at such a youthful age that we never really take into consideration the actual beauty of it.  Death is beautiful, of course it is sad but believing in the afterlife is what keeps many including myself very excited to see what I have in store for me ‘on the other side.’  Growing up Catholic the belief of afterlife is our anchor, that is, without worrying what will happen day to day we can be free, roam this wonderful unending earth in peace and happiness. 

In the Novel, written by Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine, a young Hindu is also in a culture that believes in the true meaning of reincarnation.  In this Novel, Jasmine was asked to grab a meal by a woman from the University Club whom in a better sense is that of a stranger to her.  Jasmine is skeptical and is still trying to figure out who this woman really is.  She begins to get thoughts that it was a women she might had done work for at the bank from the past.  This is a place where Jasmines spirits have come to revisit her.  The women by the name of Dr. Mary Webb at lunch, begins to question and preach to Jasmine about what she has been going through at that point in her life.  It was pretty shell-shocking to grasp the fact that Jasmine believed that Dr. Webb had more that one past life and all the pieces to the ‘puzzles’ were starting to make sense, they were not just for one puzzle per say but rather multiple. 

Dr. Webb is struggling to understand her life at this point and is looking to Jasmine for help and advice.  Webb begins to speak deeper to Jasmine about her ‘guru’.  This guru is believed to have taken over a body to get back to earth where she thinks she belongs.  Quite disturbing I would say.  The guru knows of a place where she found out that a woman was planning to commit suicide, so Ma Leela found a way to get to this person before she was able to commit the crime and told her she would be taking over her body when the doctors revived her. From this sudden exposure to absolute insanity, Jasmine begins to recollect and reconsider her life.  Jasmine begins to think deeper and deeper on the meaning of her names and the times they changed; she realized that she was the same person but every time her name changed it felt like as if she was totally different emotionally. At this point Jasmine is emotionally becoming drained and all these questions of what, who and why is she doing what she is doing are starting to occupy her well being to the fullest.

From this part of the Novel it is looking as if Jasmine would have been better off dead in her eyes.  She is someone she doesn’t want to be and changing that is slim to none; she knows that’s part of life, yet still is in denial and doesn’t want to believe this is what she was put here to be.