Collateral damage: With kin far away, funerals in Kendrapada go online

KENDRAPADA: Rabindra Rout (57), an engineer with a private company in Bengaluru, had to live-stream his 84-year-old mother’s funeral, held in his native village of Indupur in Kendrapada district on Saturday. With the country, indeed the world, having come to a standstill thanks to Covid-19, Rout could not make the journey to Kendrapada at this critical time and had little choice but to watch his mother’s rituals online.
“I got permission from the authorities to travel by a car from Bengaluru to my village but most of my relatives advised me to stay put,” Rout told TOI over the phone.
The same was the case with the two sons of 62-year-old Alekha Chandra Swain of Gupti village under Rajnagar block, who died of a heart attack on Friday night. Both of Swain’s sons work in a plywood factory in Ernakulam district of Kerala and have been unable to visit their native village to light the funeral pyre. On Saturday, they witnessed the funeral on a video call. Similarly, when Sanatan Patra (80) of Lalitagiri village died of advanced age on Friday, his only son, Ashok, who works in a private company in Kolkata, failed to attend the last rites. This it to Patra’s 20-year-old grandson Priyabrata to light the pyre, while Ashok watched it on his mobile phone.
Coronavirus has left families devastated even in places where it has not directly infected anyone. “The virus has wreaked havoc on us. Both my sons could not attend the funeral of their mother,” grieved Mahendra Basanti, husband of Pramila (49), an Asha worker of Balijhari village under Pattamundai block who died of a heart attack on Friday. Her sons, Diptiranjan and Radhakanta, are both stuck in Mumbai where they work in a factory. They, too, saw the proceedings on a video call.
But some like Tapan Pradhan managed to bid their loved ones goodbye in person. Tapan’s mother Sujata Pradhan (64) of Badamarichipali village died on Thursday. He reached his village from New Delhi in a car to attend the funeral on Friday night. “I hired a taxi to attend the funeral of my mother after obtaining permission from the authorities in New Delhi. My family delayed the funeral for a day for me,” said Tapan, who works as plumber in the national capital.