Probably it was her hair, but she really reminded me of Cruella de Vil, the villainess in Dodie Smith's novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians which Glen Close played to the hilt in the Disney movie. Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand reknowned for cracking complicated homicide cases had her life and work documented in a 2004 National Georgraphic documentary and she was in town for the inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock. Glen Close's Cruella had a big patch of grey hair, I remember and the doctor had a bit too much red and orange! The doctor was also of the opinion that the aide's death was most probably homicide but crime and mystery aside, I was more caught up by the book she authored, Investigation of Corpses. The doctor had led a group of international forensic scientists to identify the remains of the 2004 Asian tsunami victims and that probably made her an authority on corpses. Most probably too, she might have contemplated on corpses for far too many times than could imagine and would she then not come to the point when she understand life fully and even attain Nirvana? In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha has said that there are ten ideas which when contemplated on would bring Nirvana. Besides old age and disease, death would constitute a starting point for this investigation to reality -That means corpses too, I suppose...
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