On Sunday, thousands of people flocked to Guwahati to say goodbye to Zubeen Garg, a cultural star from Assam who passed away in Singapore on September 19. The singer’s lifeless remains were stored in a glass casket draped with a traditional Assamese ‘gamosa’, and grieving admirers waited for hours in queue throughout the night to have a last look.
According to a Moneycontrol report, the event had such a dramatic effect that it was formally acknowledged as one of the biggest public funerals in history by the Limca Book of Records. According to the report, the memorial service for Zubeen Garg was the fourth-largest public assembly in the world, ranking alongside notable farewells for Queen Elizabeth II, Pope Francis, and Michael Jackson.
His supporters reportedly blocked the national highway in Jorhat, Assam, for several hours on Sunday in order to demand that Garg’s mortal remains be transported to Guwahati, the city where the musician spent his formative years. The National Highway 37 (NH37) was shut near the Ajanta bypass right before approaching Jorhat town from the west, according to a traffic advisory posted by Jorhat Police on X in the early hours of Monday, as previously reported by HT.
Hundreds of admirers were spotted crying and reacting emotionally when they saw their favourite singer in a glass coffin after Zubeen Garg’s mortal remains arrived in Guwahati on Sunday. When his lifeless remains arrived at their home in Guwahati, his wife, Garima Saikia Garg, was observed sobbing.
Singer Zubeen Garg’s journey to the cremation site will start at 7.30 am on Tuesday at the Arjun Bhogeswar Baruah Sports Complex, where his lifeless remains have been stored for visitors to pay their final respects, according to Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Assam Police personnel will carry the casket from the national highway, next to Kamarkuchi, to the cremation spot and give the well-known musician a gun salute. The rites will subsequently be performed by priests prior to Garg being condemned to fire, Sarma stated on Monday. On September 19, Zubeen Garg died in a scuba diving accident in Singapore. In order to play on September 20 at the North East India Festival, he had gone to the city.