Living on, on the ‘wall of perpetuity’

Jasreen Kaur

Jagjit Singh, retired economic adviser to the Government of Punjab, passed away recently, and joined the family of noble souls. A couple of years back, inspired by two relatives, he had expressed his desire to donate his body to the PGI instead of cremating it. He had asked us, his children, to sign a form. Being the man he was, it was nothing unusual coming from him. He was always someone who wanted to break the shackles of society. It was a tough decision, but thinking from the head, and not the heart, we did it.

After giving him away, we were addressed by the doctors on duty with folded hands and presented with an araucaria plant. We were told that our father had done a great service to mankind and from now on had become a teacher. We learnt that death is of two types: brain death — in which the heart is still functioning and the organs like liver, lungs and kidneys are getting nutrition and are transplantable. The second is normal death — in which the heart fails, and in this case, the organs cannot be transplanted, except the cornea.

Since he was in the second category, his cornea would get utilised and the body — the cadaver — would come in great use of the medical profession. As new technologies are developed, you need to know their reactions and results on cadavers before these technologies are used on living beings.

New doctors need to learn and practise a lot of surgical procedures for which cadavers are also required. Not only are cadavers required after postgraduation education, but also needed in large numbers by medical colleges for first-year students to study anatomy. 

After teaching and research, the cadavers are buried, and the bones retrieved are used for teaching purposes. Thus, in a way, one is immortalised. For this, the PGI has put up a ‘wall of perpetuity’ on which pictures of such noble souls are displayed. It is, indeed, a very fine way of honouring these people and the whole thing has a holistic approach. For us, he has been immortalised. Also, through this process, he has saved 8 quintals of wood and prevented the environment from getting polluted.

A tribute: A man with wisdom, wit and grit who valued relatives and cherished friends. A man who lived life on his own terms, seeing reason and good judgement. A man who walked tall till the end, raising the benchmark even in death. Proud of you, dad. You shall be missed, remembered and cherished behind tears and smiles.