What started as a happy reunion for Raj Kaur’s daughter and son-in-law based in Brisbane soon turned sour after Ms Kaur suddenly died of a heart attack on November 6.
Originally from Pehowa, near Kurukshetra in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the 49-year-old was on her second visit to Australia, when she breathed her last.
In the absence of an insurance cover and paucity of funds owing to her daughter's temporary visa status, Ms Kaur's family turned to the community for help to facilitate the repatriation of their mother’s remains to India where the rest of their family was waiting.
Brisbane-based Indian community leader Manjit Boparai who has facilitated the repatriation of at least 80 bodies from various parts of Australia to India set up the fundraiser for Ms Kaur's family.
The fundraiser which was intended to raise $8100 managed to collect almost $8500 within less than a day.
“Our community is very supportive. By now, I have now helped with the repatriation of 80-85 dead bodies to India and I’ve never been disappointed by them.
“The family shared the house with another student. When he didn’t see Ms Kaur for quite some time that day, he knocked at her door but got no response. This is when he called for an ambulance, whose staff declared her dead upon arrival,” Mr Boparai told SBS Punjabi.
Mr Boparai informed that they were able to send Ms Kaur’s body to India pretty soon because no post mortem was conducted.
“We could act really fast on this one. The concerned authorities released her body the second day and our first priority was to send it to India. We started the fundraiser after that because the family wanted to have the body at the earliest. Last weekend, the cremation was also done in India,” added Mr Boparai.
Click on the player at the top of the page to listen to this interview in Punjabi.
