Rakesh Yadav, unmarried and living alone, invited nearly 1,900 people to a bhandara or community feast last week, explaining on the invitation card: "I have got the opportunity to throw a bhandara alive. I have no one."

The card carried haunting lines by poet Firaq Gorakhpuri: "Humein to apno ne loota, gairon mein kahan dam tha, meri kashti wahan doobi, jahan pani kam tha." For many, the verse captured the loneliness that shaped Yadav's decision.

Guests joined him in prayers and shared a simple meal of puris, sabji and sweets. Neighbours say Yadav, known for his religious devotion, has already given away his ancestral home and now lives in a makeshift shelter. His life has been marked by losses, one brother died of illness, another was murdered, and his sister too remained unmarried.

Asked why he never married, Yadav replied quietly: "We had no land. How could I marry?"

The unusual "zinda bhandara" has become a talking point in Auraiya. While some see it as a man's way of finding belonging in his community, others sense the melancholy of a life lived in solitude, where even a funeral feast had to be arranged by the man himself.