[www.keralites.net] Mahadeva from Bangalore has given a dignified burial to 77, 882 people whom no one claimed as their own.

 

Mahadeva from Bangalore In the last three decades, Mahadeva has given a dignified burial to 77, 882 people whom no one claimed as their own.
For Mahadeva, the burial ground is his karmabhoomi. He is comfortable there, it is his workstation. But he is equally at ease with the accolades and fame that have come his way. These include a couple of movies on him, innumerable articles and felicitation by chief ministers. Still, once the medals and citations are rolled up in a gunnysack and chucked into the attic, Mahadeva is back to doing what he does best: burying those whom nobody wants. How did he embark on this rather terminal journey?

At first, Mahadeva used to take the unclaimed bodies on a mobile-stretcher to the burial ground. In 1979, the year he got married, he bought a horse and started using a horse carriage for transporting the dead to their final destination.
 The horse, Ammu, became his steadfast companion. Together, the man and the beast have carried nearly 42,000 bodies. He finds it ironic that when Ammu died in 2000, he wasn't allowed to bury his friend. "The only regret I have is that I could not give a proper burial to Ammu," Mahadeva says with a distant sadness misting his eyes, "I had to leave Ammu in a secluded place on Sarjapur Road."

Today, he uses a couple of three-wheeler pick-up vans to carry the dead. The 'vehicle for unclaimed bodies', now chugs to every part of the city whenever there's a call about an unidentified dead body.

How does he get information about the bodies?

Either from police stations or local people or railway staff on his mobile phone. Mahadeva collects the corpses, gets the post-mortem and other formalities done and finally buries the bodies. He isn't allowed to burn unclaimed bodies as per the rules. The only exception being Sivarasan.


Full article in the link below . only part of the article posted here.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-12-12/people/28100253_1_burial-ground-unclaimed-body-mortuary

 

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