When the news of the
body of Janu Gonsalves which was kept in the GMC Morgue found missing, I
remember one somewhat similar incident taken place in Kuwait about 50 years
back for a Goan man whose dead body was kept in the Morgue.
His name was Caridade
but everyone called him as Caru Irmao who was working at Ahmadi Oil Sector for KOC where in a blast a few people
were killed while many others were injured, 2 of them were Caru Irmao from Goa
and the other one a Dhobi from Uttar Pradesh.
When the relatives of
Caru Irmao went to prepare and keep the body ready for the last rites at the
Catholic Church followed by the funeral
at Shulaibiahat, by mistake instead of the body of Caru Irmao the relatives of
Caru Irmao washed and dressed up the body of that Dhobi from Uttar
Pradesh. The body then was brought to
the Church for the final rites and when all the rites were finished there then
the body of that Dhobi taken to the Cemetery for burial. While the priest was saying the last prayer at the
grave, an Ambulance came with a big noise carrying the body of Caru Irmao
wrapped in a bed sheet. Somebody in the Morgue noticed this goof and
immediately took action but Caru Irmao’s body without any religious rite was
buried wrapped in a bed sheet and Dhobi's body well dressed - up taken back to
Morgue.
Why this incident has
taken place in Kuwait? In 1975 when my
Uncle died in Kuwait, I went with the same persons to prepare and keep the body
of my uncle ready with all the formalities. These both Goans were well-known to
wash and dress up the dead bodies in that area. When we entered the Morgue, we
encountered 2 shabbily dressed and with ugly looks, Morgue attendants, both low
grade Egyptians who saw the official paper we brought from the Hospital and
told us in Arabic to go inside and take whichever the body of our man. Both the
persons with whom I came to take the body were heavily drunk because without
drinks they cannot do this job. To handle the dead bodies it is not an easy
task, you require solid courage. Who
shall give them this courage? According
to them it is only the drinks in which they took support.
So they both went
inside in the cold room and brought one body which was covered from head to
feet with white bed sheet. But
immediately I sensed some mistake from distance telling them this is surely a
wrong body. For this, one of them told
me in Hitlerian manner “You just remain silent, you know nothing, you are still
a kid”. Then they brought the body below
the shower and when the bed-sheet was removed, we all noticed that this body of
one lady. Then we covered the same body with the bed-sheet and returned it to
from where we brought and after proper checking we brought the body of my uncle
for the necessary job before the burial.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
