The title of the book may sound morose, but this latest offering from the reticent Cyrus Mistry (not to be confused with Cyrus Mistry of Tata Group) is anything but that. The book revolves around the lives of a hardly heard-of and rarely-seen set of people - corpse bearers or Khandhias - within the more prosperous and gregarious Parsi community.
Apparently inspired by a true story, the book recounts the life of Phiroze Elchidana, the son of the head priest of a Parsi fire temple in Bombay (the book is set in pre-Independence India when Bombay was still 'Bombay'). His parents have high hopes of their son becoming a renowned Zoroastrian scholar or atleast a great priest. One day while wandering through the lush environs of Doongerwadi - The Parsi Tower of Silence, Phiroze meets and falls in love with Sepideh, the daughter of a Khandhia (corpse bearer). Phiroze goes onto marry her much against the wishes of his family and faces no future prospects except to become a Khandhia himself. The job of Khandhias is to collect the bodies of the dead, perform the final purification rites and rituals before the body is fed to the vultures for final disposal. Their job is one of the noblest services a Parsi can perform for one of his own faith but which at the same time condemns them to a lifetime of shunning and ostracization. Phiroze's happily married life with Sepideh is short as she passes away soon after, leaving Phiroze with the responsibility of a young daughter.
The book captures some beautiful moments of being part of a discriminated lot and the poignancy of some scenes is truly heart rending. The book's biggest value is the rare insight it offers into the harsh treatment of a marginalized segment of the sophisticated and admired Parsi society which rarely comes to the fore and very few people know exists. Some unique customs pertaining to Parsi rituals for the dead would be interesting to the anthropologist in us.
The book also brings to mind an incident in the not so distant past when an old Parsi lady mourning the demise of her mother set foot into the forbidden grounds of Doongerwadi's actual disposal pits and clicked photographs of rotting corpses which had been lying around for months and apparently even years due to lack of vultures in Mumbai. She had clicked photographs of the scene and circulated them in the media leading to a huge outcry amongst the conservative sections of the community. Scenes of those photographs flashed through my mind as I read 'The Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer' and I could only shudder to think what Khandhias see and go through each day.
Overall, the book is an engrossing read and I would recommend it especially for people who have an interest in other religions / cultures and their customs and rituals. In my opinion, Cyrus Mistry is one of India's most under-rated authors and this book is testimony to his prowess as a master story teller and that too against the backdrop of a funereal setting. Cyrus Mistry and his elder brother Rohinton Mistry both write about the same microscopic topic : Parsi life in Bombay. While Rohinton Mistry is the more popular of the two, my personal inclination is towards the writings of Cyrus Mistry. I guess Cyrus has not had the same impact with readers due to his low profile nature and non-prolific writing. I rate both the Mistry brothers very highly for their writing skills but Cyrus does seem to have an edge in capturing your heart with simple and poignant tales. Read the book for precisely that - a simple tale of love amongst one of society's most shunned lots.
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