Arun Lakshman
Thiruvananthapuram
Subina Rahman is a 29-year-old Commerce graduate with a husband and an 8-year-old son and she is now doing a job most people will shy away from. She is busy working as a cremator in a Hindu crematorium in Iringalakkuda, Thrissur district, Kerala.
With spiraling unemployment rate and getting a job next to impossible, Subina was on the lookout for one and came to know there was a clerical one at the local Hindu Ezhava community controlled crematorium, SNBS samajam at Iringalakkuda and applied. She got the job and was keeping a register for day-to-day activities including the number of cremations, the names and details of the dead.
However, she got bored and tried her hands at cremating the bodies, maybe a first Muslim woman to do so in Kerala. Since Hindu customs don't even allow women entry to crematoriums even during the cremation of their near and dear ones, the decision of Subina to become a cremator was not accepted. But she was firm and stuck to her decision.
