When we think of our day on Thursday this week, we don't recall it being any different from the monotony that cripples our existence. Or perhaps, time doesn't allow one to process the thoughts that quietly linger, eagerly waiting for the one moment where it suddenly becomes too much. Grief has always been an experience to run away from in our society. You lose someone or something, are comforted for a while, and then you're told to get over it. And like most Thursdays, even though this one was Grief Awareness Day, we did what everyone told us to.

Authors Suhita Chopra Chatterjee and Jaydeep Sengupta in Death and Dying in India: Aging and End-of-life Care of the Elderly reveal that India lacks bereavement-counselling services that are popular in the West. In the US, The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organisation provides a range of bereavement services. The book states, "In 2014, for each patient death, an average of two family members received bereavement support from their hospice —including follow-up phone calls, visits and mailings throughout the post-death year". The formal definition of grief isn't restricted to losing a person, but is the realisation of loss one feels for someone or something. We meet four individuals for whom grief manifested itself in different ways.