This Varanasi hostel lets people check-in to die
Advertisement
Advertisement
A trip to the holy city of Varanasi, considered the spiritual capital of India is sacred for Hindus for a variety of reasons. Pilgrims pour in from all corners of the country to take a dip in the Ganges and wash off their sins or to perform the last rites of their loved ones.
However, there’s another reason a few thousand devotees throng
In order to attain this salvation, they wait to die in this charity-run hostel.
Advertisement
All they have is two weeks. To die. Or they’re asked to move on to make way for others.
In some situations, a guest’s stay can be extended if the 61-year old hostel manager Bhariavi Nath Shukla thinks that the person is about to die. He also claims to be able to predict when someone will die.
Once checked in, guests are bereft of their names. Their new identity becomes a number.
As of 2014, over 14,000 people had made use of the services of this hostel to breathe their last.
Advertisement
The story of every person in each of the rooms of the hostel is as starkly different from each other, as it is similar. While covering this intriguing story last year, Danish Siddiqui met an assortment of people from diverse backgrounds, all united in their desire to attain moksha at Mukti Bhavan.The hostel got its guest number 14,578 in the form of Munna Kuvar, a 105 year old widow who had traveled in a jeep for five hours to get to the hostel. Her husband had died at the exact same place, and Kuvar had decided it was her time to replicate that.
Another room housed 82-year old Kishore Pandey from a small village in Eastern India. He was flanked by three of his daughters who have decided to perform his last rites, defying the old old norm of sons being the ones entrusted with performing a father's last rites.
Image credit: Indiatimes, Danish Siddiqui
Advertisement
Advertisement
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- 9 health benefits of drinking sugarcane juice in summer
- 10 benefits of incorporating almond oil into your daily diet
- From heart health to detoxification: 10 reasons to eat beetroot
- Why did a NASA spacecraft suddenly start talking gibberish after more than 45 years of operation? What fixed it?
- ICICI Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings; mcap soars by ₹36,555.4 crore
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market