51: RIP – Rest in peace also stands for Rest in Praise

With the availability of data on internet, one cannot befool anyone about anything as one can search even on a small electronic gadget – Smartphone – in your hand with a single thumb by touching on the screen.

As of now, I was aware about RIP – the word mostly written when someone dies to show sympathy with the family and praying for his soul to rest in peace. But today, when I was searching in detail about this abbreviation over the Google, I came across as Routing Information Protocol – RIP which is said to be one of the oldest distance-vector routing protocols which employ the hop count as a routing metric. RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from source to destination.

With another click, I could get the commonly used abbreviation as RIP – Rest in Peace – a short epitaph or idiomatic expression wishing eternal and peace to someone who has died. The expression typically appears on headstones, often abbreviated as RIP.

Most people know that RIP stands for Rest in Peace. But mostly, we simply use RIP as a short hand, not for rest in peace, actually, but rather a quick way to say, I am sad this person died! Some are of the view that it should be stopped because this expresses laziness, reductive, unimaginative and not really what we mean.

The other day, I happened to attend one memorial service on the death of a close friend’s uncle. Since it was sunny day and roasting sun heat was unbearable, I overheard a conversation between two ladies about a person who had recently died. I did not know them but I could not help but wondered as if my ears were hearing what they were uttering.

In a huge gathering and my restricted visits to the family, I did not knew the two ladies about their relations with the family but one thing is certain, which I could presume from what they murmur each other that  they were not closely related to them and they had positively attended the funeral merely a formality as far as they were concerned.

I too believe that everyone whosoever has taken birth on this planet earth, has to leave some day. The only thing seen is as to how you spend this long or short span of life between birth and death. As you sow, so shall you reap befits well to know about someone’s character or standing in the society, after his death when you overhear at the cremation ground or in your own group.

Frankly speaking, I could not believe that as to what I was hearing because the two ladies were talking about all praise for the person they were discussing except that he died on the hottest day of the year in June while it is unbearable to attend the cremation which is customary to attend in nearest relations.

I have seen when someone is departed, saying few words of compliment about him, which is a sort of insurance – even if he was not – to be returned on such occasion and we all must do. If we do, the others will definitely do to say, what I believe about RIP is – Rest in Praise instead Rest in Peace.