Through the second wave of COVID-19, Gurugram resident Swati Kapoor was involved about how she would organize her father’s funeral preparations on their lonesome.
“My father had been significantly ailing for the previous two-three years after struggling a mind stroke. In March 2021, docs declared that he had reached terminal stage. I didn’t know the best way to organize or plan for a funeral,” she remembers.
“I went on-line searching for options and located a enterprise referred to as Final Journey in Delhi. I learn opinions about their work on Google and located that they had been largely good. I went onto their web site, submitted my particulars and speak to quantity.”
Two days later, an individual from Final Journey referred to as Swati and requested about her necessities for the funeral.
“After exchanging a few emails, I coordinated a convention name between our panditji (priest) and the folks at Final Journey, and as per our rituals, selected what was required every step of the best way. We deliberate every step of the funeral course of with them. When the docs had declared my father terminally ailing, I paid them an advance quantity,” she remembers.
Swati’s father handed away on 11 Might 2021. For sure, there have been severe challenges in organising a funeral in the course of the second wave of the pandemic.
Nonetheless, the folks at Final Journey assured her that they might organise the funeral at a spot the place there wasn’t an excessive amount of of a ready interval. As a substitute of a cremation floor in Inexperienced Park, Delhi, they shifted the funeral to the Sarai Kale Khan space, and by 23 Might had accomplished the ultimate prayers.
“Regardless of some coordination points, they did a superb job of organising the funeral and all the opposite preparations related to it given the challenges posed by the pandemic,” she says.
Chatting with The Higher India, Rishabh Jalan, CEO and co-founder of Final Journey — a separate vertical beneath the gifting giants Ferns and Petals — explains that theirs is a “tech-enabled, end-to-end deathcare and funeral service supplier”.
“We deal with each side, from a mortuary ambulance to the cremation floor and prayer assembly corridor and its decor, so households can grieve in solace with out the effort of constructing preparations. We additionally deal with home and worldwide cargo of a physique together with physique embalming via a government-certified physician; in order that members away from their households needn’t fear about with the ability to pay their final respects. We additionally goal to teach and unfold consciousness concerning the availability of such providers so that folks can profit from credible and organised providers of their time of want,” he says.
Upgrading the demise care trade
Again in February 2019, somebody near Rishabh’s household had handed away. Following this occasion, he shared a poignant dialog along with his uncle who spoke of all of the difficulties related to organising funeral preparations in India.
“My take from that dialog was that provided that there was a set mechanism for mourning households, nobody must undergo such a plight once more. Our sole function is giving households the time and luxury to grieve in solace with out having to fret about making preparations. In India, the present demise care infrastructure is stagnant with an enormous scope for enchancment. Elementary points corresponding to hygiene, facilities for grieving households, and furnace and chimney programs are a number of the main areas that require upgradation,” says Rishabh.
“Over time, a significant challenge inside the India death-care sector has been native casual syndicates who’ve arrange monopolies. They typically topic households to an obnoxious amount of cash to avail providers. There have additionally been many circumstances of pandits or purohits looking for weird financial remunerations, or at occasions supplies within the title of dakshina (donation),” he provides.
India is a land of various cultures and traditions and each household has other ways to conduct the last-rites of their liked one. “So, in relation to arranging all of the issues in adherence to their cultural preferences, it’s a troublesome job since all these items are sourced from completely different distributors and locations. As an ‘end-to-end’ funeral service supplier, we’re capable of present the shopper the whole lot in accordance to their nuanced necessities,” claims Rishabh.
One other issue he believes has been utterly absent from the sector is empathy. “We practice our representatives to correctly talk and set up a superb rapport with grieving households in order that they’re snug in asking no matter they want,” he provides.
In August 2022, Final Journey unveiled a “state-of-the-art” crematorium in south east Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan space with the assist of Municipal Company of Delhi. Unfold throughout 1.5 acres, the crematorium accommodates 25 pyres, a CNG furnace and two electrical furnaces. “Throughout COVID, we realised the dire want for a extra standardised demise care infrastructure,” says Rishabh.
Leveraging know-how
Final Journey has a sensible slot allocation system that allows them to coordinate and ebook the closest burial/cremation floor. “With a widespread community of distributors who work on a regular working process, we’re ready to make sure that households will not be being taken benefit of or hassled with obnoxious quantities of cash,” he claims.
They’ve additionally deployed a Funeral Waste Administration System that retains the bottom clear and recycles natural waste supplies into natural manure.
“At Final Journey, we’re leveraging know-how with a bilateral method whereby each vendor administration is stored in examine leading to a extremely standardised modus operandi. However, we’ve been capable of take issues on-line making them rather more accessible to the plenty. Being a one-stop resolution for all funeral-related providers throughout completely different spiritual faiths, we’re capable of attain and ship to the shopper inside hours — that is essential since deathcare is a really need-based and time-sensitive sector,” claims Rishabh.
“To place issues into perspective, what tends to occur is that if somebody wants a freezer field, mortuary ambulance, priest, reserving at a crematorium or a number of different objects for the final rites, they might find yourself making making 10 calls to 10 completely different distributors and haggle over worth and supply time. With Final Journey, the whole lot is organized with out the effort,” he provides.
Their primary set of providers begins from round Rs 20,000, however this varies since completely different clients have completely different wants and a few want to omit or add a number of providers.
“So, we’ve stored a really versatile vary, which permits us to provide folks the perfect in school providers. The price of worldwide repatriations is, nonetheless, dictated by foreign money differentiation. For instance, the price of repatriation from a nation just like the USA is comparatively greater than that of Africa,” he says.
“When you had been to get the providers we offer from unorganised gamers, the price is just about on the identical tangent. The distinction, nonetheless, comes from the standard of labor,” he provides.
Since its inception, Final Journey has been utterly bootstrapped. At present, they’re in contact with some traders for the primary funding spherical that can allow them to scale up additional, enhance their market penetration and set up extra superior equipment.
“In the meantime, prior to now monetary 12 months, we’ve served 6,000-7,000 circumstances in Bengaluru; about 8,000 in Delhi; 4,000 in Mumbai; and one other 4,000 in Hyderabad. Different cities corresponding to Chennai, Indore, Dehradun, Pune, Rishikesh, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow have additionally accounted for round 7,000-8,000 circumstances,” claims Rishabh.
Dying literacy
A key side of this enterprise’s goal is to enhance ‘demise literacy’ amongst Indians. Dying literacy helps us perceive and act upon our end-of-life and deathcare choices.
“Our understanding and data of loss, grief, demise and dying has by no means been extra important. For Indians, particularly the youthful technology, it is rather vital to know demise literacy since they may quickly come to know the necessity for such providers, and the way they will make fast and proper choices with out getting exploited by dangerous religion gamers. We additionally want extra open and sincere conversations about matters like coping with grief and bereavement,” he says.
Swati remembers, “It was very troublesome to supply objects like good high quality logs. With out Final Journey, I wouldn’t have been capable of handle all these preparations. I might suggest them for people who find themselves alone or helpless dwelling in metro cities and want to rearrange funerals for his or her family members.”
(Edited by Divya Sethu)