from ashes to ashes and dust to dust, cremations are common and everyday experiences in india. since the country does have a population in excess of a billion and bit, the supply of people transitioning into the spiritual and post temporal world is regular and the numbers many. the business of death is as lucrative as it is recession proof. there’s a whole commerce of funeral merchandise, beginning with the choice of an appropriate urn. would uncle cast a spell if we chose an inappropriate receptacle? there are brass urns, cremation urns, funeral urns, pet urns, adult urns and memorial urns. even in death, the right choices need to be made.
most crematoria in india are not electric or mechanized.
all rather exotic and far away from the funeral homes of new jersey and the gothic cathedrals of paris, and for those whose goodbyes to the deceased are the rare visit to a cemetery where a tear is shed and a rose deposited. at least we don’t have a bone picking ceremony.
photographs: a man waiting with his implements for a pyre to burn through and cool so he can collect the ashes and return them to near and dear and the genuinely bereaved. goa, india, march, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment