Nakka Indrayya

HYDERABAD: An old man bends over granite slabs waiting beside a neatly edged pit. Plants line edges. This is not a garden. It is preparation for death. It is his grave. Nakka Indrayya, 80, has dug his own resting place in Jagtial district of northern Telangana, about 200km from Hyderabad.

He chose a plot close to where his wife is buried. He did not ask his four children to do it.

He did not leave it to fate. "It is my home which I have dug for myself," Indrayya said after returning from his daily visit. Every morning, he waters plants, cleans surroundings, and sits quietly by the grave. What others find unsettling does not bother him. "It is where I will be laid after my death, so I made it in the design that I wanted," he says. The grave is 5ft deep, more than 6ft long, built entirely of granite so it will not decay. The cost is about Rs 12 lakh. A mason from Tamil Nadu helped construct it. "All that one has to do is take a crowbar and move the granite on the top," Indrayya said, explaining how the burial will work. "Once I am buried, the granite will be pushed back to seal it." The resolve comes from a life shaped early by loss. He was 10 when his father died. Soon after, Indrayya began working - first as a local labourer, later spending 45 years in Dubai's construction sector. His wife died a few years ago. He returned home with savings, solitude, and clarity. "I didn't want to be a burden on anybody," he said. "There is no need to fear death. Everyone will die. I know I will die too. I also know where I will be buried.

" Each day, the man walks back from the grave to his home in Laxmipur village. The place behind him is ready.