"I Have No One": UP Man, 65, Hosts His Funeral Bhandara, Invites 1,900

Humein to apno ne loota, gairon mein kahan dam tha,

Meri kashti wahan doobi, jahan pani kam tha

The timeless lines by Firaq Gorakhpuri loosely translate to 'My own looted me, strangers could not have done so, my boat drowned in shallow waters.

These lines found a place on an invitation card for a bhandara (feast) for 1,900 people that a 65-year-old man threw last week to mark his death.

Rakesh Yadav, a resident of Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh, said in the card, "I have got the opportunity to throw a bhandara alive. I have no one." People joined the puja and had a meal of puris.

Rakesh Yadav is unmarried. He had two younger brothers - one died due to illness, and the other was murdered over a dispute. He has a sister, also unmarried.

Asked why he was throwing a bhandara, usually organised by families after someone's death, for himself, Rakesh Yadav said there is no one in his family to organise a bhandara after his death. So he decided to do it while he was alive.

"I am alone. I have no one," he said. Asked why he never married, Rakesh Yadav replied, "We had no land. How could I marry?"

According to neighbours, Rakesh Yadav has also given away his ancestral house to a relative and now lives in a makeshift shelter. He is known to be religiously inclined.

The 'zinda bhandara' became a talking point in Auraiya's Lakshmanpur. While some saw it as a reflection of Rakesh Yadav's social outlook and his sense of belonging to the community, there was a hint of melancholy over the loneliness that prompted a man to throw his own funeral feast.

Inputs by Jahid Akhtar