Mission Samvedna: Relatives stay away, but these friends ensure dignity to the dead
LUCKNOW: Covid-19 isn’t only testing lungs but also relationships. That’s what a Hindu gym trainer and a Muslim lawyer, who have been friends for decades, discovered. The duo is now out to give dignity to the dead.
They say they have seen many bodies coming with just a lone relative/attendant to the cremation and burial grounds. In several instances, women are accompanying the bodies as the men folk have either died or are away. Many aren’t able to afford the cost of a hearse, the charges for which have shot through the roof during the pandemic.
This is the reason why the gym trainer Ranjeet Singh Yadav converted his 30-year-old Gypsy into a makeshift hearse car. Along with his lawyer friend Syed Rizwan Ahmed, he has for the past one week, been transporting bodies of such Covid-19 people for cremation, whose relations were either unable or unwilling to go to the funeral.
“After bringing the bodies, we have now started remaining
around the cremation grounds as not everyone is familiar with the ways of the crematorium, the rituals and the post death formalities that follow. So, we are also acting as a guide for such people or families who feel lost among the bodies, rituals and requirements,” they say.
“Daily, we were devastated with not just news of the Covid deaths, but also how in many
cases relatives aren’t coming for the last rites of those who died of the infection. In some cases, the family is genuinely unable to come. For instance, there was this family, all of whose members were infected and there was none to accompany the dead. For such situations, we have decided to come out so that Covid bodies are given a farewell with respect,” says Ranjeet, the gym trainer and former weightlifter.
He is also former corporator of the Mankameshwar ward in Lucknow and vice president of the UP Weightlifting Association.
“I often tell Ranjeet that he is the driver, and I am the cleaner as I ensure that the vehicle stays sanitised,” says Syed Rizwan Ahmed, a criminal lawyer.