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Last rites, now live: Indian Express
Sidhpur, June 12: For NRIs who can`t make it to the cremation of their relatives back home, a Gujarat crematorium is offering live webcast of the last journey.
Sidhpur, June 12: For NRIs who can’t make it to the cremation of their relatives back home, a Gujarat crematorium is offering live webcast of the last journey.
Muktidham, a modern-day crematorium known for the ambience and facilities it offers, plans to install a camera near one of its seven pyres on June 14, and, on request, transmit via Internet live images of last rites being performed.
‘‘Relatives often miss the occasion either because distance forbids them to make it to the venue, or because they reach late. Technology can make up for both,’’ says Ashok Acharya, who manages the crematorium for the Shri Saraswati Muktidham Trust. Trust chairman Gautam Dave says the Rs 1.5-lakh project will be launched to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the crematorium. A fool-proof system of beaming images via satellite would have set the crematorium back by about Rs 25 lakh, and was rejected, Dave says.
For a modern crematorium, Muktidham doesn’t have an electric furnace. Bodies are still burnt using firewood. The trust plans to have the camera installed near pyre closest to the platform on which bodies are washed before cremation.
‘‘The camera will be switched on only if the relatives wish,’’ says Acharya. ‘‘We even plan to have CDs of the last rites made for families if they so wish.’’ Neither the telecast nor the CDs will cost the family members anything. In any case, the trust charges only Re 1 for the wood and Re 1 for as rent for hearses to bring bodies from within 40 km. For distances beyond that, only the cost of diesel is charged.
The camera will be just another of the many facilities Muktidham, located on the banks of the mythical Saraswati, offers users. It has a library, a garden, swings, a canteen, hot water for bathing. With its many carved arches and religious figures it does not look like a place for sorrow.
The atmosphere is such that people stay back long after the cremation is over. ‘‘Earlier we used to return home leaving the bodies half-burnt on the river bank, now we tend to linger,’’ says Premjibhai Vithalbhai, who along with other residents of Singha, 70 kms away, came to Muktidham to cremate a nonagenarian woman.
‘‘Shokh jevu vatavaran nathi, dukh ochhu thay chhe (The atmosphere is not sad, the loss is less painful),’’ says Mahendrabhai Patel, another resident of Singha, reading the day’s newspaper in the library which is next to a prayer hall. And pointing to mourners hanging about near a water cooler, watchman Bharatbhai Sadhu says, ‘‘We even provide hot water for those who can’t bathe in cold water, why would they want go back?’’
According to Muktidham’s computerised records, 20,914 cremations took place over the last four years, with people coming from 1,230 villages spread across the districts of Patan, Mehsana, Banaskantha, and Sabarkantha.
Sidhpur MLA Balwantsinh Rajput says that next in the pipeline are a bhojanalaya and an eye hospital.
‘‘Donated eyes have to be rushed to Ahmedabad for preservation and for transplantation. A hospital can help in conducting immediate corneal transplants,’’says Dave.
Muktidham, a modern-day crematorium known for the ambience and facilities it offers, plans to install a camera near one of its seven pyres on June 14, and, on request, transmit via Internet live images of last rites being performed.
‘‘Relatives often miss the occasion either because distance forbids them to make it to the venue, or because they reach late. Technology can make up for both,’’ says Ashok Acharya, who manages the crematorium for the Shri Saraswati Muktidham Trust. Trust chairman Gautam Dave says the Rs 1.5-lakh project will be launched to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the crematorium. A fool-proof system of beaming images via satellite would have set the crematorium back by about Rs 25 lakh, and was rejected, Dave says.
For a modern crematorium, Muktidham doesn’t have an electric furnace. Bodies are still burnt using firewood. The trust plans to have the camera installed near pyre closest to the platform on which bodies are washed before cremation.
‘‘The camera will be switched on only if the relatives wish,’’ says Acharya. ‘‘We even plan to have CDs of the last rites made for families if they so wish.’’ Neither the telecast nor the CDs will cost the family members anything. In any case, the trust charges only Re 1 for the wood and Re 1 for as rent for hearses to bring bodies from within 40 km. For distances beyond that, only the cost of diesel is charged.
The camera will be just another of the many facilities Muktidham, located on the banks of the mythical Saraswati, offers users. It has a library, a garden, swings, a canteen, hot water for bathing. With its many carved arches and religious figures it does not look like a place for sorrow.
The atmosphere is such that people stay back long after the cremation is over. ‘‘Earlier we used to return home leaving the bodies half-burnt on the river bank, now we tend to linger,’’ says Premjibhai Vithalbhai, who along with other residents of Singha, 70 kms away, came to Muktidham to cremate a nonagenarian woman.
‘‘Shokh jevu vatavaran nathi, dukh ochhu thay chhe (The atmosphere is not sad, the loss is less painful),’’ says Mahendrabhai Patel, another resident of Singha, reading the day’s newspaper in the library which is next to a prayer hall. And pointing to mourners hanging about near a water cooler, watchman Bharatbhai Sadhu says, ‘‘We even provide hot water for those who can’t bathe in cold water, why would they want go back?’’
According to Muktidham’s computerised records, 20,914 cremations took place over the last four years, with people coming from 1,230 villages spread across the districts of Patan, Mehsana, Banaskantha, and Sabarkantha.
Sidhpur MLA Balwantsinh Rajput says that next in the pipeline are a bhojanalaya and an eye hospital.
‘‘Donated eyes have to be rushed to Ahmedabad for preservation and for transplantation. A hospital can help in conducting immediate corneal transplants,’’says Dave.
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