[Reader-list] Death and Bazaar: revisiting the graveyard

[shivam]

Impressive work Marya. You may want to have a look at
http://www.necropolis.com.au/ - the website of what I would call a
death resort. Explore the site fully, including their 'application
forms'. They promise "personalised, quality service and care". I came
across the site while arbitly googling for the word 'necropolis'.


Here's the dictionary meaning of the word necropolis, which makes the
above website look very ironic:

necropolis /nekrpls, n-/ n. E19. [Gk, f. as NECRO- + -POLIS.] 

1 A cemetery, esp. a large cemetery in or near a city; an ancient
burying-place. E19.

2 A dead city, a city of the dead; a city in the final stages of
social and economic degeneration. rare. E20.necropolitan a. of or
belonging to a necropolis L19.

Yours truly,
Necropolitan


On 5/2/05, marya shakil <maryashakil at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> Looking forward to your critical views on our posting.
> 
> Three women presenting a sight….reminding of Macbeth’s witches…….no other
> women beggar is allowed in their domain…hailing from Bihar, Sakina has been
> living there for more than 8 years. Her job profile includes sitting on an
> old grave and waiting for a “allah ka banda” to donate her some money. For
> her the graveyard is like any other place where she can get some cash.
> Although the money is just sufficient for her “chai  paani” but she
> continues to live there despite, her family being miles away.
> **************************************************************************
> A man of words, Ghulam Rasool regrets why he couldn’t make money in the
> industry in which he is. ‘Mere jagah par koi bhi rehta to crore-pati hota’.
> He is the self-appointed caretaker cum gravedigger at the Nizamuddin
> graveyard which shares a common boundary with the Lodhi road crematorium.
> ...................................................................................................................................
> 
> Till 1947, the adjacent crematorium and the main road were a part of the
> graveyard, he claims. And the graveyard’s boundary wall is a 10 yr old
> phenomena, an MCD doing. He also has grievances against the wakf board.
> Despite the matter being subjudice, some of the claimants of the Delhi Wakf
> Board went ahead pasting names on the disputed wall. And Rasool feels such
> irresponsible and other behaviour on part of the Wakf board is ruining the
> place.
> 
> The legacy of maintenance of the graveyard was handed over to him by his
> father.
> A politically cautious man, he fails to quell our enquiries into his
> officiating capacity. How does he issue a death certificate, without any
> government authorization?
> 
> Here we would like to add that the government man, whom, we had met on our
> first visit and about whom we had talked in our first posting, was missing
> and Rasool refused to talk about him.
> 
> ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
> He lives with his family which includes a wife and seven children among the
> dead in a fairly well constructed house within the boundary of the
> graveyard. Predicament of his life heightens when he mentions that the
> meaninglessness attached to his profession puts him at a somewhat least
> bargaining position in the social hierarchy. Because of which he has failed
> to marry his daughters as he is a “kabar khodwa”
> **************************************************************************
> The grave digging and making of a box like structure costs somewhere between
> Rs 3000 and 3500.But a sympathetic treatment can be won by someone who
> “cannot afford”. There are 2 people who work under him and look after the
> graves. They dig graves and cut grasses that grow over them, a paltry sum of
> Rs 150-200 per grave, depending on the ‘haisiyat’….
> 
> A project of path construction is in the pipeline as some “benevolent”
> Turkish group who had come to visit their loved one in the graveyard found
> it inconvenient to move on the somewhat non-existing path.
> 
> Their livelihood depends on the generosity of the VISITORS OF THE DEAD.
> 
> The burning of the dead in the ‘modern fashion’, (the Japanese sponsored
> electric crematorium) leaves occupants on the other side choked, adding to
> the politics of the space.
> 
> The trespassing of the fumes across the shared boundary.
> 
> thanx
> 
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