Where many can’t push themselves to help the living, we find a few who think about dead.
In the quest to sustain ourselves, the survival of others around us matter only little to us. Our everyday small struggles like getting stuck in Mumbai traffic jams or not finding a place in our favourite restaurants keeps us so occupied in our sweet little world, that we completely miss the real miseries of life.
But thanks to people like Kishore Bhatt who are playing the silver lining on a dark cloud. This man makes sure that those who die without leaving behind anyone to bid them a decent adieu, gets a respectable departure from this world. A huge problem which our busy minds don’t even know is a problem.
Kishore bhatt has a store called Sapna Arts, but Kishore provides more than just artefacts, he provides a burial place for the dead! He has taken care of cases who nobody would touch. Like the African drug addicts, AIDS patients whose families have abandoned them and appalling road accidents. “It gives me great mental peace to be able to help”. He has cremated over 1200 bodies now and the number keeps increasing. He doesn’t calculate the cost of cremation and he says “I don’t know and frankly don’t care either, my business keeps me going”.
It costs about Rs 1000 to cremate a body and he is perhaps the only person in the city who enjoys a credit facility in half a dozen crematoriums. He spouts a certain wisdom which comes from experiencing mortality at close hand: “A shroud has no pockets for money-death doesn’t demand bribes.” All the bodies are disposed according to the prescribed religious requirements; the bodies of Hindus are adorned with flowers and cremated, those of Christians and Muslims buried.
He gets calls from police, hospitals, and relatives of the dead at wee hours and Kishore doesn’t hesitate to take his van wherever he is required. To find people who not just sympathise with human misery but try to correct it by their endeavours are rare.
The sight of human dead bodies lying alongside dead livestock in Gujarat in 1968 changed his life and it’s been almost three decades ever since he has been on the job to provide a dignified funeral to people.”The holy books say a person’s soul finds no peace until the ultimaterites are performed,” he once mentioned.
People call him “charr meter kapde wallah” because of the four-meter allusion of the shroud. Our government bodies are dependent on him during the time of crisis. Be It floods or bomb blasts in Mumbai. He has been there and taken care of the causalties, which Is always a grey and an unpleasant phenomenon where no one wants to get their hands dirty. After the years of serving the dead, Bhatt claims that he is free from the fear of Death and has also developed a strong inclination towards the dead. “They aren’t grateful and they don’t complain.,” he says with & stern face.