So dear blog, I hereby announce my return and request the pleasure of your honourable company. And now that you have cheerfully complied, I shall proceed to other matters of concern.
This world has so much sadness- that's something we all know, a fact that cannot be emphasized enough. You would think that I'm writing this in just one of my despondent states, perhaps triggered by some massive blow to my heart (God forbid but med school has elevated the connotations of that phrase by a thousandfold).
So let me clarify that this post is not a mountain of some dying embers of a distant fire but a spark that gave me a minor jolt in a community medicine lecture upon the sight of the following table and the information associated with it.
If you have trouble viewing the picture, just double click on the image.
The first thought that came to my mind was diabetes or heart disease. However, it struck me like a whiplash when I found out the following.
"The previous slide shows death rates by class of ticket on the Titanic, a large ocean liner that sank after colliding with an iceberg in 1912."
With that knowledge I got flashbacks from the movie by the given name and I couldn't help imagining how those people might have felt when their death was dictated by the order of their social class, if they even realized the existence of the order, that is. I failed to imagine.
Their death was due, it came for them. The point of consequence however is the irony that their tragic, social class-endorsed deaths now mark the epitome of undying love.
According to a bunch of my acquaintances, the 3D version of the movie could refuel their romantic fantasies. I shall forever remain blind to that (with an inward ugh) but what I can see is the fact that leaving the heroic manifestation of undying love aside, Di Caprio, representing a class 3 ticket holder got lucky enough to meet his end.
I know what the movie was about but even a nicely painted memoir like that is incapable of concealing the bitter aspects that haunt history and our present. A century down the road to evolution and our morals still haven't evolved much. We're often told that people change - true but their basic natures don't. The weak and poor hence naturally remain worthy of oppression and the iceberg still stands, as strong as it used to be in 1912.
