MAY 22, 1991. A little past midnight, a sleepy household in Vepery, north Chennai, woke up to the shrill sound of the phone ringing. And then came frantic knocks on the door. A groggy-eyed Stanley Michael, head of the joint family, opened the door to find a group of senior government officials, including the home secretary—all grim and grief-stricken. An officer told Michael that they urgently needed a metal coffin placed inside a wooden one. No other information was shared; Michael had no idea who the coffin was for. By then, his cousin-partners—Samson Edward, Simpson Kumar and Baskar Edward—had joined him by the door. The officials left in 15 minutes, and the brothers got to work at their rented 500sqft workshop. It was only hours later that they realised that the coffin was to carry the mortal remains of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated by cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at Sriperumbudur, to New Delhi.
“We made the coffin in two hours,” recalls Michael, eldest among his cousins who run Vincent Parker Funeral Directors, one of the leading coffin makers and funeral services company in Chennai. “It was sent to the government hospital in Chennai, where his body was kept, before dawn.”
Those days, Vincent Parker only had teakwood coffins, adds Michael. They would keep semi-finished coffins ready. When there was an urgent request, they would do the final padding work with cotton and satin cloth. That is how they finished the coffin in two hours that May.
Vincent Parker was founded by Stanley’s grandfather L.G. Joseph in 1936. Joseph initially worked with Paul & Co, which was also into funeral services. Soon, he started offering funeral services to Christian families on his own—he would transport the deceased from home or hospital to church and finally to the cemetery in a handcart. On the insistence of Irish priests, he turned pro. And, it was the foreign influence that made him name the company Vincent Paul (Paul & Co took offence over the name) and later Vincent Parker. As the demand grew, he ventured into making coffins as well. And in the 1950s, the handcarts gave way for motorised vehicles. In 1997, to keep up with the demands of a growing Chennai, Vincent Parker moved to the new premises in Kilpauk. Today, Vincent Parker offers more than 15 services—from making coffins and caskets, providing hearses and funeral vehicles, freezers, morgue facilities to airlifting mortal remains within the country and abroad and also giving out obituary notices in newspapers.
Michael joined the business soon after school. It didn’t seem an odd career choice as he had grown up watching his grandfather and father J. Patrick work on coffins. His father died young, and his paternal uncle J. Edward stepped in. It was his grandfather who taught Michael the nuances of the business. “It is a service for us,” he asserts. “We don’t consider it a business. This was the one-line advice we got from our granddad.” After his grandfather’s death in 1982, Michael, his uncle and his cousins took over the reins of the business.
The first time Vincent Parker was roped in by the government to make a coffin for a VVIP was in 1969, for then chief minister C.N. Annadurai. Michael was only 18 then. His grandfather received the officials who had come knocking with a coffin request. This time, the deadline was three hours. Even as Michael was gathering his wits together, his father and grandfather, along with the employees, got working. They made the coffin, padded it with cotton, placed the handles and painted Annadurai’s name on the coffin. “The coffin was made ready within four hours. There was no pressure or any demand when we made the coffin for Annadurai,” recalls Michael, now 74.
But that was not the case when it came to making a coffin for former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran. His close aides and officers, who showed up in at least five Jeeps, demanded a sandalwood coffin and that too at the earliest as the crowd of mourners was swelling. Michael and his brothers, however, refused the sandalwood request, saying that there were restrictions on its trade and they could not risk sourcing it. So a teakwood coffin it was. “But no one will now believe that we didn’t have a sandalwood coffin for MGR,” reveals Michael. That’s because MGR’s close aide R.M. Veerappan had poured sandalwood oil over the body. MGR is said to have been buried with his trademark fur cap, spectacles and Seiko watch. His fans who visit his grave swear that they can still hear the watch ticking and smell the sandalwood in the air.
While MGR’s coffin had his name painted on it, these days, printed stickers are in. “Not just VVIPs, today we serve people of all walks of life, including Hindus, Muslims, Jains and Parsis, within and outside of Chennai, and also the Indian diaspora around the world,” says Simpson Kumar, 63, who takes care of the day-to-day business at Vincent Parker.
Vincent Parker’s express service proved helpful for the government during the bomb blast at Meenambakkam airport in Chennai on August 2, 1984. Over 31 people, including 23 Sri Lankans who were waiting to board a flight to Colombo, died when bombs kept in suitcases ripped through the airport. The very next day, Vincent Parker delivered 23 coffins to transport the mortal remains of the Sri Lankans back home.
Again on June 19, 1990, when armed LTTE men opened fire at Zackariah Colony at Kodambakkam in Chennai, killing Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front leader K. Padmanabha and other prominent functionaries, Vincent Parker was roped in to make coffins. “We prepared about 13 coffins then and delivered them to the authorities,” says Michael.
But the biggest challenge, says Kumar, in terms of the sheer amount of coffins to be made was when the tsunami struck the Indian coast in 2004, killing thousands. And, in recent times, they faced yet another coffin challenge following the death of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in December 2016. This time, too, there was a demand for a sandalwood casket, which was again refused. “We told them that we would have to take permission from the forest department for a sandalwood casket,” recalls Michael. So a few pieces of sandalwood were given to Vincent Parker, and they were placed in the teakwood casket. That made it heavier and more expensive.
“It was very challenging for us as we had made a normal size casket in teakwood. Later the authorities came up with a different size. We had to customise accordingly,” says Kumar. And then the authorities wanted the name to be engraved in wood, which took more time. The work on the coffin began at 4.30am and went on till 3.45pm. “We had a readymade casket to which we added the inner padding, then draped it with satin and attached silk tassels. It took time for us to carve and emboss the name on the outer case,” says Michael.
But no challenge was a match to what the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it. It also brought in change. A glass top casket was introduced by the brothers to bury those who had died of Covid-19. And, work from home was definitely not an option. “I did not have any fear about Covid,” recalls Michael. “Lots of families used to plead for a coffin. We ensured that we took all precautions. We couldn’t afford to shun our responsibilities. It was all because of my staff and their work then that we were able to sustain.”
Today, the fourth generation of the family has stepped up—Deepak Joseph, 34, son of Baskar Edward (who is no more), runs the company along with his three uncles. The company has more than 200 employees—from carpenters to funeral van drivers. Years of dealing with death and mourning hasn’t turned their hearts cold; they still struggle to be calm and composed in the face of tragedy. It is perhaps one reason why Vincent Parker doesn’t employ women and no woman from the family is in the business. “It is because the entire workforce is men,” says Michael, “and also because this is a very sensitive task, which has to be handled with grit.”