Author: Special Correspondent
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: July 02, 2007
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070702/asp/nation/story_8003798.asp
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Such positive
happenings in our society rarely get the attention of the intellectuals. Negative
happenings are strung along for days, and many of the intellectuals compete
to see who can comment on them in the most virulent manner.]
An Allahabad widow with no children performed
the last rites of her father-in-law in what priests say is the first such
act by a daughter-in-law in Uttar Pradesh.
Maya Mukti Upadhyay, 42, lit Ashwini Kumar
Upadhyay's pyre on the banks of the Ganga last morning. The 95-year-old had
passed away late on Friday.
While some daughters, often from families
where there are no male heirs, have performed the final rites in some cases,
Maya's act, apparently Ashwini's last wish, is a first.
Maya had continued living with her father-in-law,
a clerk in the auditor-general's office, after her husband Suresh's death
in 1987.
Her mother-in-law had passed away before her
marriage into the Upadhyay family.
There was none to look after the nonagenarian
Ashwini other than Maya, who chose not to remarry.
A postgraduate in history, Maya taught at
a local college and, unlike many who don't get along with their in-laws, was
attached to her pensioner father-in-law.
Ashwini, too, treated Maya like his own daughter
and relatives say the widow never left her father-in-law alone.
Maya did face problems at the cremation site
in Allahabad's Phaphamau when a number of local priests protested against
what they perceived was a violation of Hindu Vedic traditions that allow only
men to perform the last rites.
Jatin Tiwari, the senior priest conducting
the proceedings, refused to allow Maya to light the pyre. Other priests joined
him, raising a chorus of protest. They relented after some elderly citizens
from the area intervened.
Some resistance came from Brahmins, Maya's
own community, but it petered out.
"I was overwhelmed by the support I got
from my male relatives. My husband's cousin and his family, for instance,
stood by me," she said.
The relatives accompanied Maya to the cremation,
hired priests and helped her with all the arrangements.