[Reader-list] death and bazaar: among the dead

[marya shakil]

Dear friends,


We intend to enter a new space through this posting.


Choosing a space and deciding upon it is quite a task.The location? The 
neighbours? Comfort? And what all comes to our mind…………..

I am dead.The space will be decided by someone else and I have No Say. But 
we can tell our loved ones to take care of “all that” after Death.

Shamim Khan of an upper middle class background says he followed his 
father’s will and buried him at the place he desired. He had expressed his 
desire for his final resting place. Were the neighbours known to him? - His 
wife and mother.



He repulsed our presence. We were researchers intruding and knocking at the 
doors he had shut two months back. His father was one of the pandits who 
performed the last rites at the Lodhi Road Crematorium.


Pt. Manish Kumar, a B Com graduate wanted to know our “motive behind the 
research” . It was sacrilege,us addressing his calling as an industry. He 
was determined that he would not be convinced. Reasons? He was there by 
Will. Carrying on the family tradition. The issue wasn’t the prestige. 
“pundit are no longer respected” so why did he choose it. Family prestige 
and societal acceptance. “He had to continue the tradition” while his 
brothers are quite well placed as chartered accountants. Dressed in a 
starched white kurta, Manish clearly did not belong to the place where he 
was placed. He was visibly upset with his circumstances but couldn’t state 
it. But Why? For “karma and dharma”.


It was “his day”. According to the distribution of the task the eight 
pandits of the crematorium perform rites on the allotted days. Interesting 
day-wise distribution

7 days- 8 pandits how does it work. “it works for us….why are you worried. 
Come with a dead and see it for yourself”. We were not the customers.

Accommodation is “first Class” with quarters given within the premises. 
Besides the 8 masters of the dead, the crematorium provides employment to 
two malis and “others”.


Hierarcy exists among the eight as well. Pt Ramesh Kumar whom we had met on 
our first visit is the most press savvy. “He is the one who responds to all 
the queries and he is the head” told Pt.Daulat Sharma. Sitting in the office 
of the crematorium he attended 5 calls while talking to us. So who pays the 
telephone bills and the malis and other employees. It’s the Arya Samaj Jor 
bagh that looks after the maintenance. What about their appointments.” We 
are here on our will….grandfather, father and then I” what if your son wants 
to take up some other profession. Such an option exists. Daulat Sharma 
avoided any questions related to the boundary wall that separates the 
graveyard and the issue of the disputed land.




We were welcomed on the other side. Have the dead started recognizing us. 
Sakina was delighted to see us. Her grand child was sleeping in the 
graveyard., next to a grave.

Its just like any other resting place.


This time we manage to talk to another living presence in the graveyard. An 
elderly rugged looking man, dressed in rags. The father-in-law of Ghulam 
Rasool. His son-in-law is away on work, so he can talk.

His reason for being there. As a guardian of his granddaughter who has now 
become of marriageable age. “Its unsafe not having a male member around. 
This place is open and accessible.” So he stands in proxy while the father 
is away. So how long does he plan to stay here.’ As soon as she gets married 
I’ll leave’, says he.

So many conflicts,where the dead live!




Sakina, her friends and this old man are hopeful, they will benefit from us. 
We give them ten rupees each for their chai-pani. They have not received 
anything since morning. Its already lunchtime now. Their faces have 
brightened up at the sight of the tenner.

In turn we are blessed.


We promise to come back. We want to talk more. We have built our 
acquaintances here. It’s a familiar place now.

Time will tell, of our return ,to this living space of the dead.

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