MANGALURU: The call of responsibility didn’t permit Sudesh Poojary, responsible for Mangaluru’s earliest crematorium, Hindu Rudra Bhoomi at Nandigudda, to hurry home after his mother died after a cardiac arrest. Despite staying near the crematorium, he reached home just around three hours afterwards. “The significant workload didn’t allow me to come back home. I would never be doing justice to this career simply leaving the job half done. Today, there are methods in place due to Covid,” he explained. Sudesh’s 66-year-old mum, Parvathi Poojary, passed out at 12.43pm May 8. Sudesh got house to do the rituals in 3.30pm. “The body has been brought to the crematorium at 4.30pm and the final rites were finished in another 30 minutes. I went home, took a bathroom and returned to get the job done. That dayI worked in the crematorium until 11pm,” he explained. His dad died eight decades back. On the higher workload due to the pandemic, Sudesh explained:”I have not slept properly for the last two weeks, and haven’t taken one day’s leave in the last calendar year. On many times, I return home just at midnight, even after falling both helpers, and sleep for a couple of hours. I’m on duty as soon as 4.30am. After Covid-related deaths fall, I intend to have a couple leaves and get appropriate rest.” Sudesh is a third-generation contract worker in the crematorium, drawing a little wages. “Krishnapanna Poojary, my mum, functioned here for 40 decades, and my dad, ” A Prabhakar Poojary, has been crematorium in-charge for 39 decades. Perhaps it was fate that I ended up here. Whatever it was, I really do my own job really,” he explained. “I’d completed a diploma course in computers and has been employed as a mechanic. When my dad fell ill, I began handling the crematorium, stepping to his sneakers. It was eight decades back.”