A man has started mourning rituals in quarantine in Dharchula, India on Wednesday after his mother died just a few kilometers across the Mahakali river in Darchula on Tuesday.
Basu Dev Bhatta, 35, of Shalyashikhar municipality 1 in Darchula used to go to India to do menial jobs every year to make ends meet. He had never heard about terms like lockdown, isolation, quarantine, social distancing and others.
He was not even affected by the coronavirus that was spreading like a wildfire until the contractor came to him after India announced the lockdown on March 24 and told him there will be no works.
He somehow reached Dharchula but found that the border was already closed by the Nepal government. There were hundreds like him who had reached there from different parts of India demanding they be let in to go home just across the Mahakali river. Some even swam across the Mahakali river risking their life but were detained by the police.
But the government did not allow them in pointing this is not the time to act in emotion and ordered the police and local administration to strictly enforce the border and nationwide lockdown.
Bhatta and others started to stay in quarantine camps prepared by the Indian government.
He would talk with his family over the phone every day. His mother would always ask when he will be allowed in. He did not have any answer to the question but had this hope that he will be allowed in one fine day and he would get to meet his mother and the rest of his family.
All that hope turned misplaced when he received a phone call Tuesday evening informing that his mother has died.
He and others being quarantined in Dharchula tried to help the oldest son go home just a few kilometers across the border for his mother's funeral but to no avail. "I have been trying to call the CDO since yesterday evening. But nobody picks up the phone," Bhatta told Setopati over the phone on Wednesday.
He has four younger brothers and one of them is still in Bangalore, India. The brothers at home cremated the mother Wednesday morning even as the oldest son was just a few kilometers across the Mahakali.
"I have been rattled. What is their politics? I would not be able to even do the mourning rituals," Bhatta added.
He has now changed into white clothes and started mourning in Dharchula, India after he was not allowed in. "We tried our best to try to send him home but to no avail," Subash BK, who is in the camp in Dharchula, told Setopati. "We all bought white clothes from a shop and gave him to wear this morning."
Bhatta said he would have stayed in quarantine after completing the rituals, which sort of quarantine the mourners but the administration does not listen.
Assistant CDO of Darchula Tek Singh Kunwar told Setopati that he cannot do anything about letting Bhatta in for mourning and added that the federal government should take a call on that. "We can bring them only when the center says. We cannot bring only one person at the time of lockdown."
