Friends or lovers, there are some relationships that stay with us forever and it knows no bounds – it does not recognize caste, colour or gender. Once you find someone you feel comfortable with – that is all it takes and that is when it all starts. These people are such a perfect fit, it is difficult to let go of them.
Meet Mariyappa Kattimani and Basappa Undi. The 56-year-olds always kickstarted their day with a cup of tea together, worked in the fields that belonged to both families, and ended their day with each other. Like peas in a pod – they were always together.
Two of a kind, the friendship of Mariyappa and Basappa of Hulageri village in Kushtagi taluk, Koppal district, is a legend in the area. Even something as cruel as death couldn’t separate them. Both of them breathed their last on Sunday.
Mariyappa died after being hospitalized in Bagalkot following asthma-related complaints. Just when Basappa went to offer a garland to the body of his compadre Mariyappa, he collapsed.
“You won and I have lost,” Veeranagouda Patil, a village elder, quoted Basappa as saying while offering the garland.
“As he collapsed, we immediately took him to a local doctor, who suggested to take him to nearby Ilkal town. When we reached Ilkal, doctors pronounced him brought dead,” said Patil.
“Though Mariyappa was a Kuruba and Basappa a Dalit, there were like brothers. Mariyappa used to say in a lighter vain that Basappa should follow him in death too. Now that has come true,” Patil added.