MATT WADE, DELHI
IT WAS a black day in Punjab's city of white gold yesterday as it farewelled a three-year-old killed in a distant land.
The body of Gurshan Singh Channa, the toddler found dead on March 4 in a field near Melbourne airport, was cremated in his home town of Kotkapura amid ''tears and sorrow''.
The historic city, known as the ''city of white gold'' because of its thriving cotton market, was brought to a standstill by the tragic homecoming.
Hundreds gathered as a procession followed the boy's body from his ancestral home, past the local Sikh place of worship, or gurdwara, to the cremation ground.
The boy's body was tenderly taken out of the coffin by relatives and placed on top of a funeral pyre. Gurshan's ashen-faced father, Harjit Singh, then set the pyre alight, in accordance with Sikh tradition.
''As the coffin was opened up, women burst into tears,'' said Munish Sharma, who attended the funeral. ''Everybody was pained after seeing Gurshan's face and body''.
Family members, including Gurshan's mother, Harpreet Kaur Channa, and grandmother, Gurdev Kaur, were ''inconsolable'' during the last rites.
After the cremation family members offered prayers at the gurdwara.
''We all are offering prayer at gurdwara for our beloved boy,'' Gurshan's great-uncle, Darshan Singh, told The Age. ''We all are mourning''.
The boy's parents flew from Melbourne with the body on Sunday and travelled with it by road to their home town, not far from India's north-western border with Pakistan.
Gurshan's grandparents, Jarnail Singh Channa and Gurdev Kaur, travelled from their home in Canada to attend the funeral.
Gurshan's body is the third this year to make the journey home from Australia to Punjab. The others were Nitin Garg, murdered in a Melbourne park in January and Ranjodh Singh, whose partially burnt body was found in southern NSW.
The Age
