Childhood Friends Perform The Last Rites Of The IT Employee And His Father In Chennai

After none of their family came forward owing to fear of getting the virus, two childhood friends performed the last rites of a Chennai IT professional and his father who died battling the deadly COVID-19 infection.

Pawan Kumar, a 45-year-old Sholinganallur native, recently relocated to Sullurpeta, roughly 80 kilometres north of Chennai and near India's spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Sudhakar Prasad Yadav, his father, was a former Indian Space Research Organisation official.

The couple was residing in a Sullurpeta flat with Pawan's wife, six-month-old kid, and Pawan's mother-in-law, who had come to assist the nursing mother. Except for the newborn, they all tested positive for COVID-19 in the latter week of April. While Pawan's wife and mother-in-law healed, Pawan's and his father's health began deteriorating.

According to Prabhakar Rao and T Subbaragavulu, who performed the final rites, Sudhakar was admitted to Shar hospital because he was a former ISRO employee, but Pawan did not receive the bed.

Pawan's father died of the disease on May 18, and Pawan died at 11 a.m. on May 30 after 16 days on ventilator support, according to Prabhakar.

The funeral director said that on the same day, an ambulance was dispatched to transport Pawan's body from Vijayawada hospital to Sullurpeta. They got the body and opened the cover to present Pawan's face to his wife for one final time before cremating the body at 11 p.m.

Prabhakar and Subbaragavulu both stated that they were aware of the danger, but that they did not want to forsake their friend.