Food For Thought- Dear Loved One!

DEAR, LOVED ONE!

This is based on a local News Paper report. This is sad, but food for thought.

As is generally known, in the West, families outsource the job of disposal of dead relatives to funeral homes who are responsible to ensure that the casket is buried and flowers placed on the grave. They stay there to ensure that everything is complied with traditions. Some do not. There is a three-year case going in the courts. Affected families handed over bodies to funeral directors of a funeral home who left the caskets at the cemetery to be buried not waiting to see what happened. Multiple bodies were buried in the same grave by crushing caskets to make room. The graves were opened and there was evidence to prove that. This was either to save time and/or economize on land available at the cemetery. Whatever! Neither the relatives nor the funeral directors had the time or inclination to do their job with humility.

We are blindly copying the West in many ways and I shudder to think if this happens in India also, or is it already happening? The relatives, read children, will leave the following letter with the funeral directors with a request to place the same on the body of the loved one on his pyre:

"Dear Loved One,

We know how precious you have been to us, how grudgingly we love you and how badly we will miss you.

Your last wish for last rites on the banks of a sacred river, a dip in the holy river, Chandan wood for the pyre and finally putting Agni to your Chita to consume your mortal remains so that your soul may burst out of your Kapal and merge with the creator will be fulfilled.

We have made all arrangements through the good offices of BEYOND LIFE, the famous charitable organization, and handed over your body to them with a handsome donation. They will also arrange to spray your sacred ashes all over the Himalayas.

Sorry dear, we could not wait as we have to catch flights back to our respective homes. Ramu has to leave for the US by tomorrow morning's flight. Already we have been delayed by your stay in the ICU for an unexpectedly long time.



BEYOND LIFE will place this letter very close to your heart on your body as a mark of our last respect.



Lovingly yours,

“Yours own."



News Item in next day’s Local News Paper.

Reports from the holy city suggest that a half-burnt body of a person was found at the Shamsan Ghat. It is rumored that the body was brought by an organization engaged in the business of disposing dead bodies for and on behalf of the loved ones. It looks the employees of the organization were in some hurry. Police have promised to take action. The body could not be identified. A social worker has disposed of the body suitably.

 

Thanks for reviving the subject. Yes, it is not only a universal population but it has been aggravated more by the migration of people to different places in or outside the country. Busy schedules, rat race, you name it and there is a solid excuse for not being there to do the last rites. and leave it to so-called agents called professionals.