The Lost Cemetery

 One can live in a place for years and even next door sometimes, and yet not register things. Similar is the case of 'Gora Kabristan ' in Kanpur. It is situated right at the entrance to my grandparents house where I have spent a lot of my growing up years. It would often be refered to as a landmark for people to locate the address, but never really registered as a place one would want to explore. 

Visiting Kanpur this time, I was determined to see it. And so I  decided to walk down the driveway and into the Kabristan.  The cemetry belongs to a period before the 1857 mutiny. Old graves, some with beautiful tombstones, stand witness to the passing time. It was intriguing to see that the graves were mostly of young people, soldiers, wives, children, infants... having left the world much before their time. 

One of the few British cemetries maintained by the ASI, the cemetry is testimony to the time when the British started establishing themselves in the country, with the army setting up one of the first Cantts in Kanpur in the 1770s. Strangely there are also some tombs of the  Portugese, perhaps traders who settled here in the 1760s.  Not used to the rigours of India, with an inhospitable climate to boot, many died young. 

There are said to be about 1200 graves in the Kabristan, but cant really say how many still stand. Some are identifiable, some not, with the tombstones gone, perhaps stolen for the marble. There are elaborate tombs..and then there are those without any name .... big ones...small ones of infants... they are all there. 

Burial in the cemetry is said to have started in 1781, with the tomb of Lt. Colonel John Steven, believed to be the oldest. But with the state the tombs are in, there could be earlier ones too...lost to time... many are still crumbling. There are attempts being made for restoration but they seem to be simply plastering cement, obliterating the decoration and uniqueness of the tombs. 

Wandering among the ruins..  one can feel for the families....  who perhaps do not even know of the final resting place of their loved ones....in another world in another time .. 

An old imposing  banyan tree stands guard, its massive branches stretching out, as if cradling the tombs...... shielding from the world outside,  the island of silence ... letting the dead sleep ...