My Voice, My Space

Or why God may have deliberately kept the afterlife a mystery. By Shambhu Imagine waking up one morning to the biggest breaking news in human history. Not a political announcement. Not a scientific discovery. Not even confirmation of alien life. Instead, every television channel, newspaper, YouTube creator, and WhatsApp group receives an official notification from God: **"Dear Humans, After death, all departed souls are reunited with their loved ones in God's Town. There are no diseases, no pain, no loneliness, no property disputes, no traffic jams, and no electricity bills. Families live together happily forever. Regards, Management."** Humanity would celebrate. For exactly five minutes. After that, the problems would begin. The World's Most Dangerous Good News The first question many people would ask would not be: "How wonderful!" It would be: "When can I go?" After all, if all our loved ones are already there, why continue struggling with deadli...

  For generations, many Indians have grown up hearing a familiar warning: "If a cat crosses your path while you are on your way somewhere, stop for a while. It is a bad omen." Some wait for a few minutes. Some drink water and restart their journey. Others stop until another person crosses first, believing the bad luck has now passed to someone else. Recently, I witnessed exactly such a scene. A man walking ahead saw a cat cross the road. He immediately stopped and waited. Moments later, another person unknowingly walked past him. The first man then continued on his way, apparently relieved that the "bad luck" had moved on. As I watched, a simple question came to mind: If the second person never saw the cat, how could the bad luck transfer to him? The more I thought about it, the less sense the belief seemed to make. The Cat Knows Nothing About Our Journey A cat crossing a road is simply a cat crossing a road. It does not know: Where we are going. Whether we are atte...