Merchant of Death is Dead

This article was published in my official blog on January 02, 2009.

When in 1888 a French Newspaper published a premature obituary of Alfred Nobel titled “Merchant of Death is Dead” virtually condemning him for his invention of Dynamite...! In that article, the news paper wrote “...Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday....” and published it by mistake while he was still alive.

That triggered the thought in Dr Nobel’s mind to live a life and leave a legacy for which he will be remembered for. He signed his last will and testament and set aside major chunk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prize...

If you were to see your own obituary printed in the Daily Newspaper that you read this morning, what would be its title, and what would be its content? What is it that you will be known for among your families? What is it that you will be remembered for among your closest friends? What memories of your actions will be cherished in the community halls of your society? What is it that you will be missed for in the mezzanine floor of your organization?

[I asked a closest friend of mine to write for me an obituary ; I chose a close friend not because I want to hear the few good things I believe I possess but because of the transparency we claim in our relationship through which I can be seen neutrally. I am yet to read them...it is not written yet because it may have carried for her an emotional dilemma of what can I write ‘in past’ about him who lives before my eyes ‘in present’.]

The emotional dilemma aside, this introspection is perhaps important at some point in life because that’s when we understand the temperature of our existence. Are we aligned to the true north of our values, or are we floating like a log moving but for neither a cause nor a destination? In the cruise towards the unseen but hopeful future, who are being left behind in the oblivion of past, or are pushed aside to the pathways; who are those we don’t hear as craving for us to slowdown to hold our hands and who are those ahead in the distance waving at us to move fast to reach where we must? What are the chances of us becoming the ceremonial memory in form of dancing flames of a candle or solemn hymns of a choir in an annual remembrance day, or the opportunities to be living in the hearts and minds of the few whom we were to influence through the resources that we are privileged to have that we at times hold on in an embrace like a little girl would to her teddy bear!

What are we doing?

What are we yet to do?

How can we inspire?

What can we deliver?

How can we enable everyone in our circles to achieve?

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