I got a call at 8 in the morning from our crematorium manager sounding a bit anxious.
“ Sir, there is a call from health department, GH, Pollachi… they have a corona covid 19 death and wants us to cremate the body… what should I do?… They don’t want to take it to the open municipal cremation ground as it will attract attention and create a panic among public as this is the first death for Pollachi…
I thought for a moment and said, “ Muthukumar… I am going to speak to a few people and get back to you.. but before I do that I want to ask you a question….
Yes sir…
If I come back and and tell you to go ahead whether you and your team ready?
Sir.. if you ask us to do it.. we will do it… came the reply. That was a reply from a great team member.. no hesitation at all..
Quick calls were made to Rtn GD Gopalakrishnan, Rtn Ramakrishnan, Rtn ARUN and Rtn Grishan.. A super quick discussion and it was decided that we will get this done at our crematorium and not turn back on that family…
I requested GD sir to speak to the sub Collector and give us the go ahead as we were not sure if we can cremate the body..
He came back to me in 2 minutes and said, Ramji.. you have the green signal.. make sure all safety protocols are adhered to..
I called back Muthukumar and told him to go ahead and tell the GH to send the body…
By the time the GH van arrived there was another body which has already been slotted came and put into electrical chamber and lots of people inside the crematorium…
I was monitoring from the CCTV camera and asked Muthukumar to take the GH van straight past the rear gate and park it there. From then on it was an awesome teamwork by our crematorium staff who quickly ensured that the people who have gathered for the previous cremation were sent out. The gates closed and no one was allowed inside.
The daughter of the deceased alone was asked to come to witness.
The remains of the deceased respectfully handled and cremated in the gasifier by our staff with a super good supervision of Muthukumar, our crematorium manager.
A sad day as we have lost a citizen of our society, however it’s also a day to feel that what a great organization Rotary is, and The Rotary foundation is which 20 years back helped us financially through its global matching grant to build this crematorium.
A day to place on record the excellent service and teamwork by our crematorium staff… remember.. we had a choice to “ avoid” this cremation and force the GH to go elsewhere.
A day to remember the decision making process we adopted to get this done. Rotary is about leadership taking decisions which impacts society. This day we witnessed it in another dimension.
Proud to be the president of ROTARY CLUB IF POLLACHI.
Rtn. Ramji Raghavan
President.