Undertaking the final farewell

A fascination,which grew into a hobby,finally led to her take stock of an 80-year-old family profession in 1986.

Today,43-year-old Esther is one of the country’s few women to take up coffin-making as a profession and runs Browne Undertakers from her workshop in Kashmere Gate.

Christians,Jews and Parsis now come to her for personalised coffins in tune with their customs and the last wishes of the deceased.

Esther has designed a coffin in the shape of a chocolate bar for a man who wanted his wife of 40 years to rest in what she had loved best in life.

Earlier this year,when a Tibetan youth immolated himself,Esther took the pains to ensure that his body was embalmed only by those who matched his animal signs,in accordance with Tibetan customs.

Esther’s grandfather Kanhaiya Lal Browne moved to Delhi from Ambala in 1923 and settled near St James Church in Kashmere Gate. Her father and uncle later moved to Karol Bagh in 1935. It was from here that their coffin business took off.

Today,though most of the old families have moved out of the area,Esther continues to live in the two-storeyed,sprawling yellow mansion,squeezed between newer constructions in Karol Bagh.

Her father,Herbert Browne,who was employed with the Railways,was drawn to coffin-making quite by chance in the 1930s,Esther says.

“It began when my father helped bury British soldiers at the Nicholsan cemetery near Kashmere Gate. My father started making coffins at the request of some of his friends in the parish,” Esther says.

Those were plain coffins,with engravings on top. “My father would let me design the scroll for the engravings and this became our signature style,” Esther says.

Visits to the graveyards with her father to look at the tombstones,study the shapes of graves,and observe the variations from cemetery to cemetery,became a routine part of Esther’s childhood.

Esther’s workshop in Kashmere Gate has a staff of a dozen men — mostly Muslims — who have been trained in miniature art,calligraphy and wood work.

“My grandfather had a lot of Muslim friends,and my father and uncle used to say that they were the best when it comes to calligraphy and wood work,” Esther says.

Esther’s family wanted her older brother David to take forward the family business,but he had no interest in it,Esther says. “My mother Ione was against me taking up such a ‘morbid’ profession. The first blow to the business came in 1975,with the death of my uncle. Four years later,my brother David died in a road accident. I was 11 then. Our workshop was gutted in a fire and my uncle was no more. My brother’s untimely death made things worse,” she says.

Esther’s father lost interest in his work and cut himself off from the world. “After 2-3 years,I wanted to revive the family business. I began bringing home small write-ups on design and let my father read them. I started meeting our old acquaintances at the church,” she recalls.

“Everybody was against the idea of my taking up this business. But I think it helped bring back my father. In the early 1980s,he began teaching me the nitty gritty of coffin-making. We started visiting cemeteries and my father came back to the work he loved,” Esther says.

She finally took over the business from him in 1986. After her parents’ death ten years later,she began managing it single-handedly. Today,her only worry is who will take over the business after her. “We have no children,so my husband and I will train somebody to carry on the work after us. The brand of Browne Undertakers must go on,” Esther says.