10 Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask an Embalmer

Joining a family business is a decision that can have both, great rewards and great risks. But for Elroy Noronha, 42, it has been more of a calling than a decision, with providing comfort to grieving families being its biggest motivation.

Elroy Noronha runs the Indian Funeral Service at Goregaon, Mumbai. They organise funerals for all faiths. One of the services they offer is embalming—the process of preserving human remains for a period of time. While it can make most of us squeamish, Noronha looks at it as his purpose in life. VICE wanted to know more.

VICE: How did you get into this profession?
Elroy Noronha: This is a family business that has been around for decades. I’ve been in this field for 26 years. My brother, uncle and grandfather were in the field of funeral service as well. I wanted to continue the family business; someone had to take it on and continue this legacy. When my brother and I first joined this company, we did not know anything about business or branding. The first year was difficult, and we could do just two-three cases in a month. But today, we cover all the cases for every funeral, whatever be the state of the body.

How do people initially react when you tell them about your line of work?
When I was in college, my friends would usually be shocked when I would tell them about the family business. The girls in my college use to run away from me. During Rose Day, the girls would ask, “Elroy, you got the flowers from the cemetery or what?” There were other jokes passed around as well. They’d ask, “Are you waiting for people to die?” And I’d say, “Who has to die will die, who has to be alive will be alive.” The work goes on; the mission goes on. Just like a barber cuts his customer’s hair, I deal with embalming dead bodies and make them look presentable for their funeral service.

Even my wife was surprised when I initially told her about my profession. She was like, “Wait, how does it happen?” She didn't understand this line of work. The common misconception is that people think that we are undertakers and we just make coffins, but there is so much more to [it] than meets the eye. For instance, the transportation cases (we get about 12 orders per year) fills our pockets with Rs 1 lakh profit for each case, which is much more than [what someone would make] working as a blue-collar businessman.

Could you tell us about the process of embalming? Is mortuary makeup used in India?
Earlier, we had to rely on hospital morgues, though now we have our own. After having our own, we started dealing with international transportation of the bodies as well. Embalming locally is not done much in India; it is restricted. But in some confidential cases, we do the embalming process when the body has to be taken from one place to another place. With the use of modern techniques, the embalming process has become easier. Injections which are usually used to conduct the process of blood transfusion are used to drain out the blood, after which the embalming fluid is put inside the body to preserve it. You need to be careful about the chemicals as they can be cancerous [Formaldehyde solution (formalin; 37% formaldehyde gas by mass in water or 40% by volume in water) is considered a hazardous compound, and its vapour toxic (National Toxicology Program, 2010).]

In burn cases, there is an issue of shortage of skin transplants. If it's a major case like a kerosene or firecracker burn, it’s very hard to reconstruct. The skin, which is available, is donated, and the whole process takes time. It is in parts to achieve success in making the body look and feel presentable for viewing.

In terms of makeup, If the family really requires makeup on the deceased, we use something which is not heavy, colours which are as light and subtle as possible, so that the body looks absolutely natural.

What kind of training do you need for embalming?
A cosmetology degree is an extended arm of embalming, which is more about dealing with the reconstruction process. In embalming, the main thing is preserving the body. Dressing the deceased with proper makeup is secondary, which is at a very nascent stage in India. We do it if we have time but people usually do not want to wait for 4-5 days for the body. In India we don't have any colleges or courses for embalming. I myself have graduated from an institute which was abroad. In India, in the case of embalming, we are 20-30 years behind China.

Have there been cases that have shaken you up?
We have dealt with gruesome cases like the bomb blasts of Mumbai’s 26/11 catastrophe, and the Elphinstone station stampede incident. For these tragic events, embalming is a crucial process. It’s part of our work and it doesn’t feel horrifying at all.

The most difficult thing in this profession is to deal with child deaths—you have so many questions in your own mind about what happened and what went wrong. We have a policy which provides funeral services free of cost for the family of any deceased child between the ages of 0-5. We tell the family to give Rs 10 as a namesake or to make a donation to a daycare centre in the child’s name. Young death is hard to deal with, especially if it’s an accident case.

What are the things you don't like about this line of work?
Well, I don't like the odd working hours and that is the biggest problem. The other thing is our mental health. To ease the stress and for my mental relaxation, I play hockey. The other issue is that there is constant change in the embalming process which we have to adapt to. Like how we should close the eyelids which is very crucial especially in accident cases. We use eye caps which give a natural look so that the body can be viewed. Then we need to be aware about different types of lip features. In Hindi movies, they show that cotton is put into the nose and ears, which is very haunting and filmy. It’s very Bollywood-ish. Like Sridevi's body, it was dressed so beautifully but I don't know why cotton was placed in the nose. There are chemicals that can be used in the embalming process that delay the decaying process by 2-3 days; it lasts even longer if the body is kept in a freezer coffin.

Have you had to deal with unusual requests from families?
We get the usual, where they want the body to be dressed up perfectly so that they look presentable. Oh, there was this one case where we dressed the man very nicely, and the family wanted to put sunglasses on him. So we did that and they were all shocked and said, “Oh, wow!” He looked like a hero. Just like how Shah Rukh Khan doesn't leave his aviators. It doesn't suit Shah Rukh but it definitely suited this man.

We once got a request to embalm a 3-foot rooster. We denied it because it’s not our line of work and I did not want to fall into trouble for it.

Do you think that by bearing witness to dead bodies frequently it makes you live life to the fullest?
Yes, for sure. This service is helping families in their time of grief and sorrow, and you feel like helping more families. It has given my life more meaning. I definitely feel happy because you get to comfort the family members. That brings me happiness in abundance and my purpose of life is reassured.

Does this affect the way you view death?
In science, it said that every living and non-living thing has to die. We just have to do our work, and whatever work we do is for God's glory. Everyone has their purpose; we should complete our purpose in life and then we die. One thing is for sure that death is unexpected.

Does any part of your work come to haunt you in your dreams?
Spooky nights? Not really. We are so tired, that at the end of the day we just sleep. These things are all superstitions. These demons and spirits are all superstitions. I can tell you with assurance that you can visit the graveyard at 7pm and you will come out without being afraid. It’s all about your mindset. If you believe that ghosts exist then you will feel a presence. Else, you won’t.

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