Hindus and others say they appreciate the effort. The guide took four years to complete and included many visits by its authors to mortuaries and crematoriums. The guide was written specifically for Hindu, Jain and Sikh followers, who make up the majority of the Indo-Americans living in the Bay Area. It offers a sampling of forms, lists of who performs South Asian funerals, and examples of prices with mortuaries negotiated especially for Indo-Americans. Cremation is also popular because India is about the same size as the United States but with nearly four times the population.
Most Eastern religions believe that a loved one is reincarnated after the body is cremated.
Reasons for its popularity include cremation's relatively inexpensive price tag and the Bay Area's growing Asian populations, whose cultures embrace the process, Springer said. Also, cremation is popular in areas near water. Copies have been distributed around the country as an example to Indo-Americans of how to create similar booklets. Having a guide would have been helpful to Chandra Parekh, who like many immigrants comes from a younger generation that never organized a funeral in India or the United States. The third brother still lives in India and the family had to fax a form for him to sign.