“There! A sari cradle suspended from a tree”. Taken in by the sight, I stop in my tracks. So ironical, I say, to my accompanying colleagues. Sari cradles have always excited me — I consider them sharp pointers towards rural life and a slice of culture we have lost — but not to this extent. In a setting like a cemetery, the cradle becomes a symbol of life. There is no child. Dusk is setting in. The mother may have taken the baby inside, I think aloud. There are a couple of families who live on the premises of the Indian Christian Cemetery and one of them must have put up the cradle. Under the shade of such a huge tree, lush greenery around and a breezy weather, the all-pervading peace would have lulled the baby to sleep. It hasn’t rained that day which makes it easy to walk around in one of the oldest cemeteries in the city. Said to be built in 1857, the 24-acre cemetery is also home to 185 soldiers of the Commonwealth forces who died during the First and Second World Wars and their kith and kin.
“The cemetery is maintained by the British High Commission. They appoint one person to clean it but since there are so many graves, by the time the person reaches the last one, it is again a mess,” says an official from the Indian Christian Cemetery. I see P. Thomas Turner of the 6th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment resting in peace. The tombstone says he was 28 at the time of his death, October 11, 1917.
The cemetery, maintained by 11 major church denominations such as CSI, Mar Thoma, Orthodox, Pentecostal, is enveloped in history. The simple grave of German horticulturist Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel — credited with the city’s green cover — lay forgotten here until historian Suresh Jayaram rediscovered it in 2007. The city woke up to it during the celebrations planned to commemorate Krumbiegel’s 150th birth anniversary last year. Kenneth Anderson's grave is here too. He was an India-born British writer and a wildlife lover who always set his stories in the jungles of South India.
The official tells me about the most recent discovery — that of Benjamin Rice, the missionary who came to India from London in the late 1830s and stayed here till his death in 1887. He went on to establish the Mitralaya Girls High School on Mission Road. “And I don’t know what stone and what polish have been used but it was in very good condition when we located it last month,” says the official.
Rice, who quickly acquired proficiency in Kannada, called Canarese then, is also believed to have done the first map of Bengaluru.
Shouldn’t this piece of heritage be protected then? “Yes, it should be. There are century-old graves. The sheer size of it makes it unmanageable. There are 20-30 people who come in everyday at 11 a.m. and clean it but it is not possible to do it thoroughly. But All Soul's Day on November 2 is one day when we ensure a thorough cleaning. That is the only day people visit the cemetery in large numbers. Otherwise they don’t come regularly.”
Aesthetics is an inherent part of human nature and it reflects even in the last leg of our journey. Ornate motifs, angels and Christ carved in stone, a chiselled Bible, beautiful text from the Holy Scripture and granite slabs adorn the cemetery.
Those who couldn't afford it, have simply used cement and an iron cross. No elaborate tombstones for them.
The day has been relatively easy for 30 year-old Shankar, the grave digger. It is 4 p.m. and no burials have taken place till now. So, he utilises the time for walking his two pet dogs. It has been eight years for him, here. A long time to get used to? I gently ask him. “Yes, that is true but after him, nobody else from the family is going to follow in his footsteps. I want his kids to study and do well in life,” shouts a young woman standing at the threshold of his small one-room house, located at one end of the cemetery.
But there is peace. “Nobody bothers us. It is green and spacious,” says Parvati, whose husband is also a grave digger. She helps out her husband with cleaning. The cemetery has been home to this Nepali family of young men, women and school-going children for 20 years.
The cemetery is filling up fast. “It is almost full. Just one or two months and it will be full. We are looking for a space and it is not easy to find one within the city limits. We are looking at Electronics City and Hoskote,” the official points out. He adds that while family graves are an option, they are not feasible here. “It means reserving a portion of space which is not possible because there is no space and we don't allow a burial over another before five years. But we get lot of requests from people who like to bury their grandparents next to each other. If we find a little bit of space, we accommodate it. It is an ecumenical cemetery which lets people from different sects and denominations have their last rites here which is why people prefer it and today we have no space.”
