JOIN USA village grieves for its dead
An inconsolable Pooja fainted on seeing the bodies of her mother Lakshmi, grandmother, aunt and other close relatives. Wearing glittering gold finery in keeping with the tradition, the newly wed Pooja was brought back, along with her father, only when the funeral pyres were about to be lit. Overcome by grief, both Pooja and her father fainted as the pyres went aflame.
The celebrations of marriage drowned into wails of the relatives of the 21 deceased whose mass funeral was organised on the banks of Visveswaraya Canal, right next to Jyotirlingeshwara Mutt here, on Wednesday.
In all, 31 people died in the tragic incident. While 27 bodies, including four children, were fished out on Tuesday evening, another four were retrieved on Wednesday morning by a team of expert swimmers.
A majority of the dead were from Aralukuppe, it was a rather unnerving sight with 20 bodies, including three children, kept underneath the shamiyana next to Primary Health Centre in the village.
Pooja’s mentally challenged brother, Pradeep Kumar, who attempted suicide on Tuesday evening after hearing about the accident, was lying nervously on one of the two beds inside the Primary Health Centre. There was hardly anyone to attend to him, for right next to the building, the villagers sat in groups around the bodies, grieving for their relatives.
With adequate police security, and support from the villagers the mass funeral was held as per the time agreed upon by village elders. As members of the family preferred to carry out funerals after “rahukala” was over by 1.30 pm, the taluk administration along with MLA Puttaraju had made arragements accordingly.
About two to three truck loads of dry wood procured from Melkote forest was being brought to make 19 pyres. Lakshmi, her kids, Prashanth alias Chintu (4) and Chinnu (11 months) were cremated on a single pyre.
About 5,000 people gathered around the cremation site, sometimes making it difficult for the officials and relatives to catch the last glimpse of the deceased. The quaint village, with about 15,000 population, had nearly 10,000 visitors, including those from Aralukuppe and surrounding villages, Mysore and Bangalore, paying their last respects to the departed souls.