Summary:
VARANASI: The crackle of burning pyres, like the hiss of a giant serpent, feeds the smoke that is bellowing from Varanasi`s Harishchandra Ghat, an old cremation ground on Ganga`s banks.
The heat is intolerable, singeing almost, and Rajesh Singh, 35, who runs a small departmental store in Lahartara, is sweating profusely, waiting for his turn.
His uncle has just died from Covid-19 and the funeral rites have to be done.
The "manager" asks him for Rs 11,000.
When Singh protests, saying it shouldn`t be more than Rs 5,000, the man asks him to leave with the body he has brought.
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VARANASI: The crackle of burning pyres, like the hiss of a giant serpent, feeds the smoke that is bellowing from Varanasi`s Harishchandra Ghat, an old cremation ground on Ganga`s banks.
The heat is intolerable, singeing almost, and Rajesh Singh, 35, who runs a small departmental store in Lahartara, is sweating profusely, waiting for his turn.
His uncle has just died from Covid-19 and the funeral rites have to be done.
The "manager" asks him for Rs 11,000.
When Singh protests, saying it shouldn`t be more than Rs 5,000, the man asks him to leave with the body he has brought.
Across cremation grounds in UP, harried kin of those who have fallen to the virus are being overcharged.
And they have no recourse but to pay up.