When the bhoomi poojan of the reconstruction work of the electric crematorium at Chandanwadi, Marine Lines was done on Sunday morning, it meant that years of spadework, to get this project off files to brick 'n' mortar reality had fructified.

"Now, the solid work on refurbishing this part of the landmark crematorium will start within a fortnight," said Cynthia D'Mello, part of a group of 26 people under the umbrella Dignity in Death who were pushing to get this off the ground. "It took at least four years of work to see that the foundation stone is laid and reconstruction begins. We have not reached the moon, but reached a milestone from where we have to fly higher and higher," she added. Colaba's Bella Shah, who is also part of the group, said, "We are very happy. At times on the journey towards this it all seemed so tough that I wanted to quit. Yet I continued under the leadership of Renu Kapoor and here we are."