Sending off Strangers

Kishore Bhatt has a tryst with the dead. A caretaker of unclaimed corpses, he's ensured dignity for more than 2,000 in the past 40 years

Immediately after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Kishore Bhatt got a call from Nair Hospital. "The bodies from the Taj are coming in. I need you here," said a doctor. He went. As vehicles carrying the bodies started coming in, Bhatt wrapped them in white sheets. At one point, a man standing nearby said, "Don't do it to that body. He's one of the terrorists." Wrapping the body, Bhatt replied, "He was a terrorist when he was alive, now there's only a body."

Bhatt, 57 years old, has a long relationship with the dead. He is a caretaker of unclaimed corpses, having in the last 40 years, ensured the funeral of more than 2,000. He's the man hospitals turn to when they have a dead Aids patient forsaken by family. He's the man the police turn to when they have an unidentified murder victim. And Bhatt arrives with a white sheet.

In the late 1960s, when still in school, he had hopped on to a truck to distribute food to flood-ravaged Surat. On returning, he told his father about the dead bodies strewn on the streets. "In your life, if you are unable to do anything, do just this: help in the funeral of corpses. Make sure it's someone who's not known to you—it should not be a selfish deed," said his father. He took it to heart. If he heard of a death anywhere, he would be the first to reach. He informed the police when he saw unclaimed bodies; soon, he was also giving them a funeral. The police were suspicious at first. They would ask him about his relation to the dead person, why he had done it. But when they realised it was a genuine act of service, they began to solicit his help.

Bhatt's service runs across all religions. Recently, a tuberculosis hospital told him about three bodies. When Bhatt had collected the papers, he discovered they belonged to a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian. "Just like Amar Akbar Anthony," he says. He took the Christian to a graveyard, which was closed. He begged the priest: "I said, 'I am a Brahmin and I am doing this despite him being a Christian. I request you to help.' The priest relented." He then took the Hindu to a crematorium and the Muslim to a kabristan.

Bhatt believes the spirits of those whom he has given a funeral are grateful. He calls out to them in times of trouble and they help. Once he was sucked in by the tide during a visit to a beach in Gujarat. "Only my hands were over the water when I remembered a spirit and asked him to help. It picked me up like a strand of hair from butter and put me on the beach."

He runs a business of manufacturing idols. When he gets a call, he just closes shop and heads out. It's not just unclaimed bodies he disposes. Relatives who are too poor or are out of Mumbai are given his number by hospitals. "Whenever I see that a dead body has had its final rite performed, I feel a great peace when I come home," he says.