Om Namo Shivaye

Death Archive Project – Proposed Questionnaire

We are very encouraged by the positive response to our Death Archive Project. Several suggestions are made to improve the project. One member suggested including Memorial within the Archive.

Chhotalal Damjibhai Pattni from London, a well respected and an experienced community leader, suggested to include more questions and to standardise the form so that we have some uniformity in our records.

Suggested Questionnaire

Record number (for editorial use) .................................................................

Name of the deceased ..............................................................

Sankh E.g. Ghaghada/Dhanak/Satikunvar/Vaya etc......................................

Name of husband/wife ...............................................................................................

If alive give address .....................................................................................................................................

Date of birth if known...................................................

Born at .......................................India/Kenya/Uganda/Tanzania etc

Date of Death ....................................................... at ...............................................

Details of his life and achievements (can be short memorial) ..............................................................................

For immediate relations see record nos.(for editorial use) .............................................

Survived by (optional) :

(Names of sons, daughters - in - law, daughters son in laws, grand children etc )

Report filed by ...................................................

This type of records will be a lot more useful in the years to come than it is now.

We have records from Barot from where the family trees are made but nowhere one can find records of ones ancestors' date of birth or other material.

Above questionnaire is the suggestion made by Chhotubhai.

My only concern on the above questionnaire is about asking for the member’s present address. Although we can collect the addresses for our data, it will not be possible to publish it in the website due to the Data Protection Act. Even if it is somehow possible to by pass this Act, we shall be reluctant to publish as such information can be subject to abuse. We are already getting complaints of members receiving commercial mail in the UK where the addresses were copied by commercial organisations from the red Samaj diary.

That is why we need more suggestions and recommendations from members. Once we have finalised the form, we can also ask Parajiya Samachar in Rajkot and Parajiya Prakash in Jamnagar to publish this questionnaire in Gujarati. We shall also invite members around the world to become volunteers and go around in their local area to fill in the forms and collect the information.

Above is just the proposed draft. If you have any other suggestions then please e-mail us at PattniConnection@gmail.com.

This is going to be one of the largest projects ever undertaken by the Parajiya Pattni Community. We would like the whole community to get involved. So do please join us and make your contribution. Remember, whatever we do now will benefit not only us but also our children and the future generations.

Pran C. Arjan Dhanak

Editor

www.PattniConnection.com

Death Archive project

We have started receiving a steady stream of e-mails from members listing deaths in their families. In the past our Barots in India used to record Pattni history, now with the internet technology we need to carry forward his work. It is very important that we preserve such records and make access to them much easier for future generations

We request all Parajiya Pattni Sonis around the world to list all deaths in your family and send it PattniConnection@gmail.com. Such records will become very valuable to your children and their children in the future.

Time is not a great healer

When we launched the Death Archive project, we thought members will simply send the death records. What we experience is that there is still grief and pain. Some members are still coming to terms to the loss in their family and not gone over the fact that the person will not be around anymore. It's hard to cope especially if the person you've lost is someone that has touched your life. No matter where you look at it, it's not just a physical loss but an emotional one as well. Death is something you can't take back anymore.

So what do we do with our grief? We comfort each other. We console each other.

Memorials
Memorial Section in our website plays an important part to share your grief and sorrow. Memorials are a wonderful way for family to share and remember the person you have lost.

Creating a Memorial Tribute for a loved one gives family and friends at home and around the world the opportunity to share in their memories and leave personal comments and tributes. It is an opportunity to celebrate and honour a loved one's life, a way to proclaim your love and share your feelings about a dearly departed with others.

Grief touches all of us. Grieving hurts and heals. Several families have posted memorials in our Pattni Connection website and the families have really appreciated to see the photos along with a permanent memorial of their beloved ones. This is what our community website is all about.

If you wish to do memorials for your beloved ones then please contact us at PattniConnection@gmail.com . We are always here to serve our community.

Jai Shri Krishna

Pran C. Arjan Dhanak

Editor

www,Pattni Connection.com

The Impact of Sudden Death

Today June 11 2007 Monday is Ekadashi of Purshottam Maasa and it belongs to the spiritual world.

A sudden, unexpected death brings pain too deep for words. The impact of sudden death is devastating, for it happens without warning or a chance to anticipate what lies ahead. It allows no time for goodbyes, no time to make amends or ask forgiveness for harsh words spoken in trivial quarrels, and no time to express the love one feels but doesn’t verbalize. The unfinished business of the day can never be transacted—it remains unresolved. It is like an unfinished song, the melody stopped in mid-phrase that longs for completion.

Our Vedic consultant Jyotikar Pattni has written this piece in memory of Pattni members who have departed without saying goodbyes to their loved ones.

May God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Jai Shri Krishna

You were there

To all the individual souls (our beloved ones) who have left us in tragic sudden deaths without saying Goodbyes!

Time flies fast; tides perpetually churn the cycle of the dusk and the dawn with the kiss of sun meeting the Grand Ocean and the Teeming Vast sky together to redeem the nightingale with hope never fading.

Ah, this life! Life oh life! You were there, but now you are no more.

Memories greeting through the shadows of my mind, thoughts of love, thoughts of holding you and feeling your might! Tear drops falling from my eyes, as I think of the times when we were children! Hand in hand we walked home from school. But those times are past and gone forever, leaving me disillusioned with this elapsing life– for in the depth of heart, I too shall sooner than later wither away quietly in time!

Looking back at life, it seems like only yesterday you were there laughing and murmuring vividly as if I were dreaming. All else matters less, for when the last curtain draws upon me, I too shall have to leave in silence.

Although it hurts so much knowing you are no longer with us when I look back on my life to ponder and to reflect upon sweet memories, you still keep encouraging me somehow in somewhat mystical ways. The grief of hurt shall never find solace from the comfort of sympathy nor shall my heart seek pity! Knowing you were there, but now you are no more.

Stars above keep a watch over me mysteriously as if it were my only hours heaving my pain and hurt in restful night when I dream of you, as if you are vividly here in spirit only! What to say of this life? What to say of life? When I think of the barriers of moments; it breaks my heart to see by the light of death approaching yet in delight my spirit wants to take a flight into the unknown; oh life oh this world filled with careless treasures; rare in its lowest seats, rare in its meanest of lives; rare in its callous brokenness!

Knowing you were there, but now you are no more; let me pray in silence, let me offer my respect, let me offer my obeisance, let me offer loving hymns, and let me offer flowers of peace at your at your altar, even so in death, let me now gaze at it without fear! You were there but now you are no more!

Aum Shantih Aum Shantih Aum Shantih