The immortal quest

Eye Culture

- KUMAR ABISHEK

A parade in Beijing was meant to showcase steel and certainty: Columns of modern weaponry, synchronized salutes, leaders framed like statues above Tiananmen Gate. Then a hot-mic moment betrayed something softer. Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un leaned close—not to talk of missiles but of biotech, organs, and lifespans stretched to 150 years. The men who embody power's permanence revealed their own unease with the inexorables of time; the clock is ticking.

The longing to outwit death has trailed humanity for millennia. In Indian mythology, devas and asuras churned the cosmic ocean to extract amrita, the nectar of immortality. The prize promised eternity but also provoked chaos: Who would drink first, who would rule forever? Alchemists mixed metals in search of eternity, philosophers debated its worth, novelists sketched futures where death was little more than a scheduling glitch. The seekers change—devas, kings, scientists, moguls—but the craving endures: To keep living.