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Kolkata start-up helps families book funeral services online
KOLKATA: She has been receiving news on someone’s death almost every day over the past three months.
KOLKATA: She has been receiving news on someone’s death almost every day over the past three months.
Families in mourning, living in and around Kolkata, are calling her over organising hassle-free and peaceful funeral rites of their near and dear ones.
And she takes charge — from organising body preservation to getting the hearse van and certified priests for Hindus and Sikhs, providing funeral helpers and conducting ceremonies — different packages for different communities. Her services can be booked online too.
Shruthi Reddy, a former techie who hails from Hyderabad and lives in Kolkata, had launched an agency to provide end-to-end funeral services barely six months ago, and has already tasted success.
Her start-up, ‘Anthyesti Funeral Services Private Ltd’, has handled 60 cases mid-March and at the end of June.
“There are many people living in Kolkata, especially non-Bengalis and the Bengali families whose close ones are NRIs, who have no one to help when they need to organise a funeral. We provide the entire service, from bringing the hearse van, completion of the cremation and ‘Shradh’ ceremony to deportation of bodies abroad when necessary,” Reddy said.
A few days ago, when a Bangladeshi citizen died while travelling in Kolkata, the family members contacted Reddy. She made the necessary arrangements for preserving the body and later deporting it to Bangladesh.
Kolkata-based Gopal Sharaf took their help in getting mobile freezer boxes and embalmers to preserve his uncle’s body for three days. “As families are getting smaller, more people are in need of help for organising funeral rites of their close ones,” she said.
