The mortal remains of Shashi Kapoor were speedily conveyed from the late actor’s residence in Juhu to the Santacruz electric crematorium this morning by a closed white ambulance with red flashing lights of the Antim Sanskar Seva. The media followed in hot pursuit, splashing through the pouring rain, keeping pace with Shashi Kapoor on his last journey. With police monitoring the ambulance’s progress, the short 2-km trip was completed quickly. And once there, while the Police Band dressed in its trademark red jackets and black trousers struck up a tune, senior officers of the Mumbai Police draped the body in the Indian tricolor and Shashi Kapoor was given a 21-gun salute in farewell.

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For some time this morning it was presumed the last of the legendary Kapoors would be taken to the crematorium ground in a green flower bedecked hearse of the Indian Funeral Service with glass sides and roof that waited silently among the cars of the mourners at the residence. But this did not happen. Perhaps the Kapoors, otherwise as wildly expressive as a family can be, decided that death was a private affair. And that Shashi Kapoor did not require to be taken for the last rites with people watching the body go by in the hearse. Though the actor was given a state funeral because he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2011 by the Government of India and awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2014.

A senior editor attending the funeral ceremony recalled that in September 1984, when Shashi Kapoor’s European wife Jennifer Kendal passed away of colon cancer, her body was taken for the funeral in an open hearse of this type. Was it Shashi Kapoor’s wish to have the same transport? Undertakers like the Antim Sanskar Seva and Indian Funeral Service help bereaved and grieving families perform the last rites by organizing everything from the bamboo bier and garlands to the priest. Media personnel covering the cremation were surprised by the presence of the Police Band. Somebody commented sadly, “In keeping with his sunny and cheerful disposition always, perhaps the family was giving Shashi Kapoor a band baaja farewell.”