Release for grief: When sincerity matters more than words themselves

Loss is humanity's lot, but as Gibson reaches urgently for their best gifts - love, humour, creation - we see it ought to be a connecting idea rather than an isolating one

“Are you okay?” A seemingly inadequate question to produce during someone’s time of grief. Yet, when Balya, a protagonist in Sabar Bonda, poses it to his bereaved friend Anand — away from the earshot of the relatives, who are too consumed by ritual organisation to worry about emotional comfort — it serves to put oxygen back in the airless room. A reminder that in painful situations it is not the language of a question that matters so much as the sincerity in its asking. 

 

The response he receives is just as momentous for its naturalness: “I don’t know.”  Anand has