Murali and the deathly hollows

How do you react to somebody's death?

The answer is an easy one (in fact an unnecessary one) if you are very attached to the departed.

But what if you knew them just enough to warrant your presence, but weren't close to the person? You feel nothing "major" inside you, just the atmospheric waves of death hitting you as you move close to the body, do a namaskara to it and the stuff...You can't escape the gloom; long drawn faces, puffy red eyes of those who've cried enough, and those who've either been there for a very long time or those who've just arrived and it has hit them : both of them crying still...

And yet, there you are looking at all these people, probably trying a bit but not "feeling" sad...And you just blend in, atleast giving the deceased some respect in the form of silence...

But with silence arrives contemplation as an unavoidable side kick! You think about the person, his life, his highs and lows, his times with you, his achievements (no matter how hard you try, you HAVE to be the accountant with the balance sheet)...And just when you are entering a state of genuinely missing that person and realising his true value, you overhear people discussing rather mundane, petty issues about who's gained weight, which movie they've watched, how tall somebody has grown to be etc etc

At first I thought it to be disrespectful to be doing such things, being in your own world and not being just to the occasion...But then I realized that maybe that's their defense mechanism kicking in...To postpone the pain...

Well, I still don't know the answer to the question which I started out with...

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return

Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust