KANNIYAKUMARI: Living is expensive; so is death. At times, mourning gets distracted by all the expenses that they are expected to bear. Even the dead are not spared the horrors of the materialistic world. With their hands and feet tied with threads of deception, nostrils blocked with tiny blobs of cotton, and the white shroud of perfection - death, at times, can appear more gentlemanly than the living. Getting ready with the assortment of items termed essentials could be painstakingly unkind.
For anybody else, it would be a weird response of judgmental stares and self-suggestive silent spells. Mohamed Kaffoor, however, is quick to answer: “Rs 4,500 for cremating Hindus and Rs 8,000 for the burial of Muslims and Christians.” The 62-year-old from Edalakudy is not a gravedigger, but his handbook is as brimming with the essentials as Liesel Meminger’s from Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.
The only difference between Kaffoor and Liesel, apart from reality, is that the former stole no book, but he is penning the afterlives of many by just giving the dead a decent send off. Kaffoor is from Nagercoil city, who has helped with the burial of two deceased and cremation of bodies of 18 people so far, none of whom were his kin of any kind. He visits crematoriums and burial grounds and sponsors the dead in their final journey.
Kaffoor’s philanthropy does not don the smiling faces of dust-clad, shabby but happy children. Only silence follows with little or no claps, let alone acknowledgment.Born to a daily-wage labourer father, Kaffoor started working as a salesman at a medical store in the city after his pre-university course (PUC). After working with a company of pens in Kerala and touring Tamil Nadu for his work, Kaffoor flew down to Uganda to work in a shop. He, along with a friend, set up his own shop in the African country.
After making some money, Kaffoor returned to India and started living in Edalakudy serving as chairman of the trust hospital UGASEWA, which was formed by people working in Uganda. Following his expertise, Kaffoor became a coordinator and continues to serve as one. While his stint with social service for the living had begun earlier, it was not until three years ago that Kaffoor got into serving the dead as well. Kaffoor was contacted by an acquaintance of his to suggest financial help for the final rites of a young man who had recently died. Kaffoor reached Kanniyakumari government medical college hospital.
“His family had no money to even perform the last rites,” he tells TNIE. After rushing to the mortuary, Kaffoor found a young woman holding a child in her arms and an aged woman. “She said that her husband sustained them by stitching and repairing umbrellas on the roadside in Nagercoil,” he says, adding that the family lost its money treating him of a sickness and had barely anything left to conduct his last rites. So, following completion of formalities, Kaffoor took the body to the crematorium at Ozhugunaseri and gave Panner, the cremator, Rs 4,500. The family members were brought as well and the last rites conducted as per their wishes.
Kaffoor says that he also got a facility constructed at his native place for Muslims to cleanse the bodies of their deceased. Even during Covid-19 pandemic, his services were available.Similarly, Kaffoor has also performed last rites for the elderly from Good Samaritan Home for the Aged at Aasaripallam in Nagercoil. S. Basil Rajan, director of the home, tells TNIE, “We admitted the sick aged inmates of our homes at nearby Kanniyakumari government medical college hospital for treatment. If they died, the bodies were kept in the mortuary and Kaffoor would be informed. He came to the mortuary and took the bodies to perform last rites.”
The money given for cremations and burials are taken from Kaffoor’s own pockets. A Shahul Hammed, a 74-year-old retired bank employee, is Kaffoor’s only companion on this road. About Kaffoor, Hammed said, “Though he was not very rich, he helped many people during the time of Covid.” In fact, Kaffoor recalls that his wife found out through an appreciation post on Facebook and has been supportive since.