| KK's Death Tells Us Why It's Important To Listen To Our Heart In the late 80s and early 90s, when Doordarshan was the only source of news, the channel would run many public service announcements (PSAs) on the importance of health and safety. One of those advertisements - on road safety - ran with the tagline 'better to be Mr Late than Late Mr'. Somewhere in the race of life, we all forgot this rather important message as we all rushed towards getting things done. How many of you find yourselves constantly checking off mental checklists even as you juggle multiple things through the day? Or live in your phone rather than in the moment? I do. It's the truth and I begin the list with my own name. But even then, the news of singer KK's death came like a jolt. I am not able to come to terms with the fact that a 53-year old, seemingly fit person can die like this. Then again, the pressures our minds and bodies take - the knock-out punches of deadlines, the peer pressure to keep up social appearances, the shifting of body clocks that come with living out of the suitcase...and so much more - are all being stored in our system's hard drive. And what happens to a hard drive when it overloads? It crashes. KK's heart attack was his machinery crashing. _1654790759479.gif) So here are my big learnings from this incident: 1. Know your body inside-out. Understand the state of your body's machinery and don't just focus on looking good on the outside. In KK's case, neither he nor his family was aware that there was a blockage as found in the autopsy. We should not have to wait for that stage in our life where an autopsy would reveal what's inside our body. 2. The incident also spotlights the state of crowded events and concerts. Music concerts are typically always over-populated. Somehow, we only tend to think of concerts as events where people are falling over each other; we don't understand the concept of space which is not only important from a Covid perspective but also safety perspective. Significant attention needs to be paid to how many people should be accommodated vis-a-vis the capacity of that place. 3. Commercial reasons and popularity notwithstanding, are we equipped to handle such large-scale events? Even if there are places demarcated to hold concerts, what about the checkboxes we have to ensure? First-aid, ambulance on stand-by, fire safety and so on. A headliner died in the case in point, but casualties could have happened in the crowd, too. What is the emergency SOP if such a thing is to happen? A visibly uncomfortable KK was seen being frantically whisked away. Even after seeing him in such a state, nobody took the decision of taking him to the hospital and instead took him to the hotel. And this is not the first celebrity death on stage; American tabloids are rife with many musicians dying after concluding their shows, and some even while the show went on. Our hearts go out in tributes but if these questions are not raised now then they may lead to repeats. To conclude, a stitch in time saves nine. Listen to your heart, listen to your body. Stay healthy and have a mindful weekend. Tarot | 
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