After the experience during the maneuvering to transfer Miyan from stretcher to the ventilator Waseem Babu did not want to take any chance and booked a utility vehicle of Electricity Department for carrying the Janaza.
What you do with your dead is a measure of level of your civilization. Society seems to be slipping in the wrong direction in this regard. There is an industrialist and innovator from Marris Road Mr Laxman Prasad (not an Alig in all probability). The idea of printing the time, in the punching era, on tickets goes to him. When APJ Abdul Kalam came for AMU convocation he visited Mr Prasad at him home. When APJ Abdul Kalam came for convocation of Manglayatan University, Aligarh he visited a school run for and in a village by Mr Prasad. When Mr Prasad's father died people said very nice things in condolence and then they silently left. Nearly all of them. Carrying the dead body to the cremation ground was an experience that unsettled Mr Prasad. An innovator is an innovator. Mr Prasad used the usual push cart of the vegetable sellers and converted it in to a cart for carrying dead body with just few simple but essential and useful improvisations. He termed it the Arthi Rath.
Our Christian brothers have solved the problem a little bit earlier. Very recently we said good bye to the CMO of University Health Service (Medical Attendance Scheme) Dr Jacob Kurien. The coffin was put a wheel cart that has handles and can be pulled by two people very easily.
In case of Miyan Allah Most High had willed a different thing. At the time of lifting the Janaza it was realized that the vehicle that was called can not accommodate it. "Carry it on shoulders", said somebody. Death is an occasion of high delicacy but reality should not be ignored. There are people who will not leave any opportunity to utilize a delicate situation. Sometimes it could be simply lack of wisdom rather then lack of care or lack of sensitivity or lack of decency. Some people think that Aligarh is a great place to die at. So many people gather for the burial. Indeed once carrying a Janaza it was heard from a passerby woman, "What a heavenly (Jannati) man he must be, there are so many people in his Janaza!". If the Janaza passes through the market the passers by stop on the road side, leave their vehicles and either walk with the body or many times carry the Janaza forward for few steps. So do the shop keepers, leaving their shops. So do our hearty young men, the students. But this still may not cover the whole route. And the diligence of some young men to focus on recording the funeral procession on their mobile phones can not be left approved.
Verily we are for our Lord and unto him is our return.
Finally reaching the cemetery a scene became unforgettable. Owais Jamal Shamsi was on call with Miyan's brother from Pakistan. "Now I have come to the feet side of the Janaza", said he while the caller had broken into crying on the other side, as Owais Jamal later told. A reminder of the fact that worldly relations get severed at the time of death, however close they might be.
Verily we are for our Lord and unto him is our return.