Jitumoni Sarmah of Nagaon and Subham Bora of Numaligarh were among the thousands on Thursday who thronged the proposed memorial site for singer-composer Zubeen Garg in Sonapur, Assam, making the most of the Vijaya Dashami break.
It was here along the NH37 that the singer-composer was cremated with full state honours on September 23, four days after he passed away while swimming in Singapore on September 19, leaving an entire state in stunned grief.
Since his cremation at Sonapur, on the outskirts of Guwahati city, people from across the state have been pouring in to offer their prayers, light a diya or an incense stick for his eternal peace.
Most people that The Telegraph spoke to said they were “on a pilgrimage”.
“That we have travelled 120km to be here instead of participating in Vijaya Dashami should tell you what Zubeen Da meant to us. He was our voice,” Sarmah, 45, said.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Subham Bora, in his forties, who had travelled 260km with an eight-member team from Numaligarh in Golaghat district. “We came despite it being Vijaya Dashami because he was in everybody’s heart. There will never be another Zubeen Da,” Bora said.
People from all age groups, faiths and communities from near and far came to “pay our shradhanjali”. Hundreds of cars and bikes were parked neatly in the parking space created by the administration.
Everything was orderly — no pushing or jostling. Everyone had moist eyes and one sentiment: “Zubeen Da’s loss that will be hard to fill.”
Zubeen’s adya shraddha was performed at Jorhat, his home town, on Wednesday, where fans gathered in large numbers.
A police officer told The Telegraph that there were fewer crowds at immersion ghats in Guwahati. A Guwahati restaurant owner said business was down by half because people were not celebrating as they usually did because of Zubeen’s demise. “The pain is personal. People are still mourning, so no complaints,” said Raju Choudhary, the restaurant owner.
In Sonapur, Bhadrakanta Das, 57, music arranger and a close associate of Zubeen, came with his wife and daughter. Releasing a pair of pigeons in Zubeen’s memory, Das said: “He was much more than a singer-composer. For everyone, the loss is personal.”
Fresh arrests
Drummer Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and singer Amritprabha Mahanta, who were with Zubeen in Singapore where the singer-composer died on September 19, have been arrested after being questioned for several days.