This weekend, Bengaluru will witness a thought-provoking two-day event exploring the many facets of death — from preparation and planning to grief, mourning, and rituals. The ‘Good to Go — Death Literacy Festival’, organised by Pallium India, an NGO integrating palliative care into health systems, and the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, a research think tank, aims to spark open conversations about end-of-life choices.
Festival director Smriti Rana, who has worked in palliative care for nearly 25 years and heads the WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Policy on Access to Pain Relief, believes society avoids discussing death. “We wanted to create a safe space where such conversations become natural,” she says.
The festival will feature panel talks, film screenings, music, workshops, and interactive installations. A central theme is advance care planning — enabling individuals to decide how medical and life decisions should be handled when they cannot make them themselves. Options like DNR orders, organ donation, and living wills fall under this category.
In February 2023, experts from medicine, law, public health, and caregiving formed the Advance Care Planning Collective to clarify misconceptions. Smriti notes that terms like “dignity in death” are often wrongly equated with euthanasia. The group hopes to influence policy, legal frameworks, and public awareness.
Highlights include workshops on organ donation, writing wills, coping with pet loss, and a “wind telephone” installation — inspired by Japan, where a disconnected phone helped grieving families speak to lost loved ones.
August 23–24, Bangalore International Centre, Domlur