When she got married over 40 years ago Parsiana reader Pilloo Kotwal of Calcutta discovered an intriguing invitation card, the paper yellowed and damaged on one side, among the family’s old documents. It was an invitation to the funeral of an ancestor, a young woman, just 26 years of age, who had died in 1892. Since Kotwal had no immediate living in-laws, there was no one to recount its history to her. She informed Parsiana over the telephone that over the years she has often looked at the card and wondered whether it was the norm in the 19th century to "invite” people to attend a funeral. So she decided to share this piece of history with readers in the hope that someone could enlighten her on the customs of those times.
The quaint invitation is worded thus: "The friends of the late Mrs S. D. Kotwal, wife of D. R. Kotwal, Manager, Singer Manufacturing Company, are invited to attend her funeral. Her remains will be moved from the residence, No 21, Parsee Church Street, to the Balliaghatta Tower of Silence precisely at 3 o’clock this evening. Aged 26 years. Calcutta, 24th August, 1892.”...