Fade: become inaudible, gradually disappear, loose strength, pass out gradually or suddenly.
Everyone has experienced fading in some form or the other, physical, emotional, spiritual. A child experiences his first fading probably by seeing his paintings getting washed away either due to excess water or insufficient color. One can take pride in experiencing "fading" , or one may get desolated. It may be even voluntary at times.
Heres a story. A small kid Hari, innocent like every other kid, lived in a village. The village was very small, still untouched by modern marvels. It had one school, one small medical centre, typical village kind of bus stand. The daily livelihood of people came from selling vegetables, toffies, kulfis in those scorching afternoons, sweing clothes, etc. Not hard to imagine, a typical small village.
Hari was the son of a very poor farmer. But he dint know what poverty was like, for he never saw anyone rich around. So for Hari, poverty was the way life is lived. He played with torn tyres, rolling them all through the village, giving pulses to it with a small twig. He went to the only school there. Hari was just an average kid. His mother died while giving him the gift of life. His father gave him the love a mother would gives along with security and comfort a father gives.
One day, his father came from the farm, went for a small nap. But the nap was not small. He never got up. Hari called his neighbors to see what is wrong. Hari did not comprehend the concept of death at that age, but he knew that his father has gone to something like heaven where good people go. This was the first time Hari experienced something getting faded from his life. His mother dying when he was born was something which he wouldn't have remembered. His life had to change, afterall a kid with no parent, in a small time village, can he really survive? People in that village couldn sustain their own lives, how could they adopt this added burden. He became miserable. The phase of fading away of his childhood!! 2 years, he cried on streets, out of hunger, lack of love, lack of father!. He succumbed to life's cruelty and faded away into heaven.
The story, simple as it sounds, gives an even simpler insight. Hari's fate had "fading away of life " written on it all from the start. He never asked for it, he never would have wanted it. But it happened. What could he have done to change it. Nothing! No one could have either.
There are somethings which no one can change. Acceptance of the present is many times the best way out. Even if it has fading away of the future in store. It is not necessarily fading away of life, like in the case of Hari. Acceptance is not pessimism as it may superficially seem, nor is it optimism. But who says that one has to be a pessimist or an optimist.
Of course there are people who cant deal with it and as Kurt Cobain wrote "It's better to burn out than to fade away".
