‘Notes on Grief’ review: Grief and sorrow as a celebration of love and relationships

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes a moving tribute to her late father as she tries to come to terms with his loss during COVID lockdown

A rampaging virus has taken too many lives, and counting, each loss difficult to comprehend, impossible to replace. With the COVID-19 toll crossing unimaginable numbers worldwide, there is a sense of dread about the uncertain future. The last breath and the resultant fullstop have evoked considerable literature. In recent times we have had Arun Shourie’s Preparing for Death and Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s Loss. Rabindranath Tagore, of course, wrote some of his most well-known songs after personal tragedy. In 1903, a year after his wife Mrinalini Debi passed away, Tagore penned these lines, “there is sorrow (dukkho), there is death (mrityu), yet there is peace (shanti), there is joy (ananda)...” Contemplating on the fear prevailing over the coronavirus, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa says people find it difficult to accept that all of life’s beauty ultimately belongs to death, “and that at any moment it may come to an end.”