NEW DELHI: The rampant violation of Covid preventive norms by Delhiites is a dismal reminder that the city barely remembers its daily tryst with death.
In contrast, the people at the funeral complexes, who struggled with the massive daily use of the facilities, have not forgotten their experiences and are loath to think of a recurrence of death and disease.
In east Delhi, Deepak Sharma, 44, of Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, which runs the Seemapuri crematorium, recalled with a shudder being forced to create temporary pyres in the parking lot to accommodate the unending bodies being brought for the final rites.
“Calling it a humanitarian crisis does not half describe what happened,” said Sharma.
“People were reluctant to even bring the bodies of their relatives to the cremation grounds.
In so many cases, since no one was willing to help families in home isolation to have the bodies cremated, we had to go to the houses ourselves,” said Sharma.
The aerial photographs of the innumerable burning pyres at Seemapuri were seen by millions across the globe.
TimesViewThe unscrupulous engaged in profiteering.
But hundreds of unsung heroes also battled the killer virus putting their own lives at risk every day.
They restored people’s faith in humanity.
Those who worked at the overflowing cremation and burial grounds belong to this select category and deserve to be acknowledged and lauded for their efforts.
We also owe it to them to do our best to ensure they are not made to go through such a horrific experience again.Sharma remembered how because there were so many bodies to cremate, many had to be kept overnight in refrigeration units.
“People should understand that opening up the city does not mean that the coronavirus has been defeated.
People have to follow Corona preventive norms,” said Sharma.
Perhaps the worst affected of the crematoria was the one at Punjabi Bagh.
Dr Saurabh Mishra, deputy health officer in South Delhi Municipal Corporation, spent many days at the crematorium.
And despite his wife, his 10-year-old son and himself being infected, he had to keep the final rites operations running.
“At one point, my wife was serious and my son had to be quarantined by himself.
I can’t forget the trauma of that time,” said Mishra, appalled that people are taking Covid-19 so lightly after the relaxation of the lockdown.
At the Kotla cemetery near ITO, where the largest Covid burial block is being operated, Mohammed Shamim, 38, described the horror of the second wave’s peak in April-May.
“We were receiving 15-20 maiyyats every day and at one point, we ran out of space.
We had to clear the bushes along the periphery to make space for graves,” said Shamim, who, because of the risk of infecting his wife and daughters, lived in a makeshift hut at the cemetery for three months.
He added, “We sacrificed so much to protect our families and people today aren’t following the prevention norms when Covid-19 hasn’t magically disappeared.” Fateh Chand, a public health inspector who assisted in the Covid operations at a west Delhi crematorium, said they had to start work at 5am and tend the pyres beyond 1am.
“One person had to do the work of several people.
At one point, like many colleagues, I too got infected.
But someone had to coordinate with the hospitals, so I continued to work,” said Chand.
“To protect my family from infection, I stayed at an ashram in Sultanpuri.” The daily work for Madan Pal, a public health inspector in east Delhi, changed from checking shop licences to logging the daily dead and ensuring the availability of necessities at Ghazipur crematorium.
“Dealing with a situation in which you were surrounded by infectious bodies is unforgettable,” he said.
“I think people need to learn lessons from the hardship and sufferings that others went through recently.” Hira Lal cleared pyres after every six hours to create space for the unending arrival of bodies at Karkardooma funeral grounds.
“It wasn’t easy to do this and coordinate with relatives on the ashes,” said Lal.
“Almost every day we reached the crematorium to find ambulances lined up and people waiting in queues with the bodies of their kin.
Sometimes, there were heated arguments about the delays in cremating the bodies.
Now that there is a fear of a third wave, I dread a reprisal and hope people have learnt enough in recent months to take care to follow all the Covid-19 guidelines.”