Man waits for death in grave

2007-05-04 13:08

Patna - Hundreds of people are flocking to a remote village in eastern India to catch a glimpse of an old man who has spent six years lying inside his own grave waiting to die as he mourns for his wife, officials said.

Basanta Roy claims he is 103 and spends his day clearing weeds from the grave and lying in it.

Belonging to a Hindu caste who bury their dead, Roy dug his grave close to his wife's after she died in the late 1990s.

"He cleans his grave every day and waits for his death, which seems to be eluding him," said Shyam Narayan Ram, a senior government official from Jharkhand state.

- Reuters