Amol Rajan reveals how new documentary helped as he grieved dad's death

Yahoo

5 hours ago

Amol Rajan has said making a pilgrimage to the Ganges for his new TV documentary helped him confront his dad's death.
The University Challenge host's father died three years ago and he told how he had struggled with his grief, saying it "can really screw you up". So this year, Rajan travelled to India for the largest religious festival in history, the Kumbh Mela, to help him deal with his loss.
Speaking on The One Show, he said the special journey had "made a big difference".
Rajan was on the BBC programme on Monday, 23 June, and told how he took part in the Hindu pilgrimage earlier this year as he filmed Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges.
"My dad died three years ago and I think anyone watching this, you guys, if you have lost a parent, the first time you go through grief can really screw you up," he said as he chatted to presenters Alex Jones and Roman Kemp. "In my case it really, really did.
"And I think that one of the natural reactions to grief is you try not to think about it because it's too sad because you miss that person too much.
"After three years I just thought, you know what, I need to confront this a little bit, I need to stop denying it. And this was a chance to think about my dad, to reconnect with a kind of Hindu heritage but also just to try and sort of like, really confront my grief, and to stop sort of denying it. And I think it worked."
Turning to fellow guests Michelle Collins and Sean Hayes, he quipped: "I mean, I look like a happy guy now don't I?"
He added that the pilgrimage "made a big difference".
"We got to the confluence of these rivers in India and it was truly, truly, truly magical.
"I'd just say to anyone, even if you are not interested in Hinduism necessarily or pilgrimages, if you've been through grief and you are a little bit scared to confront it, I think this film is about someone who says, you know what, at some point you've got to face up to it," he said.
"It does get easier," the TV star went on. "The weird thing about grief is that it's universal and everyone will go through it but every grief is particular, every grief is a grief for a particular relationship."
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Discussing the festival, which was attended by half a billion people, Rajan said it was "completely nuts".
"I was born in India, Hindu family, grew up here, not particularly religious, in fact I'm an atheist," he said.
"But Hindus believe that every 12 years the lining up of Jupiter, the Sun, and the Earth, with the Moon, creates this special cosmic energy and it's all above those rivers, where these rivers have this amazing energy and if you bathe in the rivers, then Hindus believe you can basically emancipate your relatives from the cycle of death, birth and rebirth.
"This was like, the twelfth, 12 yearly one, so it was like, the most auspicious thing for 144 years."
Rajan also shared that his family had an "awkward moment" when it came to scattering his dad's ashes after he was cremated.
"We spread his ashes in the river close to here, so the Thames in London," he said. "Rivers have a particular significance in Hinduism.
"We had a slightly awkward moment where my mum said that the container was biodegradable and it turned out it wasn't, so I've got this idea that my dad is just bobbing along in the Thames somewhere!"
The One Show airs at 7pm on BBC One on weekdays.
Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges airs on Wednesday, 25 June at 9pm on BBC One.