KAKINADA: The scare of Coronavirus has made kith and kin of persons succumbing to virus abandon all traditions and customs, whichever their religion. Most are not coming forward to follow the rituals for the dead, which are believed to provide them a better afterlife.
It is said a person must maintain good relations with at least four persons
who can carry him or her to the funeral ground. In these calamitous times,
there are only two people available, one the ambulance driver and the other
the “katikapari” who places the body on the pyre before it is lit up.
There have been numerous cases when voluntary organisations have come to
perform the last rites, as family members are unwilling to even accompany
the body. As a result, the dead are being denied the traditional final
rituals, which differ from caste to caste and religion to religion. Among
certain groups, rituals are such that they go on for about three hours
before the body is consigned to flames or buried.
Ironically, while the government allows 20 members to attend a funeral, not
a single family member is present in many cases. That is the level of scare
that Coronavirus had induced among certain people.
Many families prefer to hand over the body to service organisations. When a
prominent caste Hindu died in East Godavari district, his funeral was
performed by two Muslims who never knew him. “We appealed to family members they come along. But none cared or dared due to Covid scare,” said one of the two – Ameer Pasha.
Pasha and his team have been performing funeral rites for the past one year
in East Godavari district. Pasha says in one instance, at Ryali village in
Atreyapuram mandal, nobody, including family members, came forward to carry
the body. People with vehicles in the village were not willing to take the
body to the funeral ground. “Our team finally took the body in the village
garbage rickshaw and performed the last rites,” Pasha said. The situation
was similar in case of another death at Ravulapalem.
Says Vedic pandit G.Ramakrishna Sarma: “There is a famous adage, which
states that a son will protect or save parents from pangs of Punnama Narakam
(hell). But in the present Covid-19 situation, no son is willing to save
parents from throes of hell. Family members have become insensitive to
tradition because they want to save their own lives,” the Vedic pandit
remarked.
