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speak easy

(9,096 posts)
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 06:50 PM Apr 2021

Covid in India: Mass cremations in parking lots {Graphic images in replies}

Mass cremations begin as India’s capital faces deluge of COVID-19 deaths

Delhi resident Nitish Kumar was forced to keep his dead mother’s body at home for nearly two days while he searched for space in the city’s crematoriums - a sign of the deluge of death in India’s capital where coronavirus cases are surging.

On Thursday Kumar cremated his mother, who died of COVID-19, in a makeshift, mass cremation facility in a parking lot adjoining a crematorium in Seemapuri in northeast Delhi.

"I ran pillar to post but every crematorium had some reason ... one said it had run out of wood," said Kumar, wearing a mask and squinting his eyes that were stinging from the smoke blowing from the burning pyres.

India recorded the world's highest daily tally of 314,835 coronavirus infections on Thursday, with the second wave of the pandemic crushing its weak health infrastructure. In Delhi alone, where hospitals are running out of medical oxygen supplies, the daily rise is over 26,000.

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/mass-cremations-begin-indias-capital-faces-deluge-covid-19-deaths-2021-04-23/

EDIT: I am posting any of the photos - Warning: There are some in the replies.
12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Covid in India: Mass cremations in parking lots {Graphic images in replies} (Original Post) speak easy Apr 2021 OP
Their numbers are simply tragic. So many dead! Awful. n/t CaliforniaPeggy Apr 2021 #1
I always dreaded the Covid epidemic in India. speak easy Apr 2021 #2
This message was self-deleted by its author dalton99a Apr 2021 #3
Horrible. brer cat Apr 2021 #4
And the same pattern brer cat :A RW demagogue who does not give a damn. speak easy Apr 2021 #6
OMG.....SO, SO, SO, SO, sad....... a kennedy Apr 2021 #5
funeral pyres are traditional in india.... getagrip_already Apr 2021 #7
I'm upset at a leader (Modi) who has been holding huge election rallies speak easy Apr 2021 #10
The number of dead is horrific but Hindus generally burn their dead on funeral pyres malaise Apr 2021 #8
I take your point. speak easy Apr 2021 #11
Indeed the number of people dying is frightening malaise Apr 2021 #12
This message was self-deleted by its author malaise Apr 2021 #9

Response to speak easy (Original post)

speak easy

(9,096 posts)
6. And the same pattern brer cat :A RW demagogue who does not give a damn.
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 07:06 PM
Apr 2021

Modi has been holding mega (or should that be MAGA) election rallies, right up until last week.

getagrip_already

(14,225 posts)
7. funeral pyres are traditional in india....
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 07:07 PM
Apr 2021

Don't be revolted by the scenes of open air cremation; it is their cultural norm.

You can, and should, be upset that the death rate is so high they can't keep up in traditional settings.

speak easy

(9,096 posts)
10. I'm upset at a leader (Modi) who has been holding huge election rallies
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 07:11 PM
Apr 2021

up until last week.

Yes I find the funeral pyres confronting - and did not post them for that reason, but the point of the article is I think , that the cremations have spilled out into parking lots.

malaise

(267,784 posts)
8. The number of dead is horrific but Hindus generally burn their dead on funeral pyres
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 07:09 PM
Apr 2021

Many of the pyres are near rivers and not just in India. Hindus in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago also cremate their dead.

What I will say is that Modi is as irresponsible as Trump.

speak easy

(9,096 posts)
11. I take your point.
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 07:16 PM
Apr 2021

I find the photos confronting, and did not post them for that reason, but what the article was reporting is that people are having to set up makeshift facilities in parking lots.

malaise

(267,784 posts)
12. Indeed the number of people dying is frightening
Fri Apr 23, 2021, 07:23 PM
Apr 2021

and with mass cremations, I'm sure the process is nothing like the regular ceremonies, but funeral pyres are normal in India. I
I've been to a few of these funerals in the Caribbean and they do shock the sensibilities of those who have never attended them. I have friends who aren't Hindus who have been cremated this way by choice.

Response to speak easy (Original post)

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