Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (SD)

Panaji, Jul 9: Former health minister Dr Suresh Amonkar who succumbed to COVID-19 on Monday, July 6, was laid to rest as Yuti Amonkar lit the pyre of her father. He was 68. "Covid is here...but this is the last chance we get to show that we care as a family," Yuti said.

Yuti who is 28 said that she has been reading how the deceased are not even getting a proper final ritual in this situation. “I have been reading of people not even getting to do this… there are cases where many refused out of fear of infection,” Yuti said.

Yuti's photograph performing the last rites of her father at Amona in Bicholim taluka surfaced. She was wearing a white PPE and an earthen pot on her shoulder.

Yuti works as a software engineer. She narrated when on July 6 she got a call about her father's demise. “It was painful, very painful. We always hoped he would come back," she said.

As the funeral pyre was supposed to be lit, her sister asked if she wanted to do it. She said that she wanted to and she had to do it for the last time. To show her gratitude for being a great father. He had taken care of the family with a smile on his face, made video calls until he was put into a ventilator, she narrated. “My sister asked me if I wanted to do it. I felt I had to do it, for my heart, for my father,” she said even if it was not common for daughters to light the funeral pyre. “I knew I had to be strong to give him a good farewell," she said.

Yuti performed the rituals in the presence of chief minister Pramod Sawant, Ayush minister Shripad Naik, officials from Sakhali Panchayat and Municipal Council as the locals looked on.