Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s quiet journeys across various corners of India to immerse her father’s ashes

We find out the real reason behind the actress’s recent sojourn to Allahabad

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her family have always lived her life with dignity, despite carrying the pressure of being a public figure and being constantly under the media spotlight. But on the personal front, she has always been a devoted and dutiful daughter to her parents Krishnaraj Rai and Vrinda Rai and was seen spending every minute during her father’s bedside before he passed away in Mumbai on March 18 after a brief battle with illness.

Only a handful of people know that over the last four months, Aishwarya ahd her family, have been quietly visiting a few cities and towns all over India (because they are of religious significance and also because Krishnaraj loved visiting them) immersing her father’s ashes. While some people managed to get pics in Allahabad and Mangalore, they have remained unsuccessful in the other cities as Aishwarya and her family is not comfortable with media attention on these intensely private trips. She has been accompanied on each and every journey by her family, including her mother, brother Aditya Rai, and their uncle apart from Ash’s husband Abhishek Bachchan and their daughter Aaradhya.

Says a source, “Aishwarya and her family have immersed his ashes in various places of important confluence according to religion and also those cities and towns which were of importance in Krishnaraj’s life. These cities, including Allahabad and Mangalore were her dad’s favorites and she and her family has been making trips to them to immerse the ashes. Last Saturday, they visited Allahabad to immerse the last ashes at the Sangam, the holy confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati in Allahabad and the actress was again accompanied by Abhishek, Vrinda Rai, brother Aditya, their uncle and Ash-Abhishek’s daughter Aradhya. When people saw her pics in Allahabad last week there was some speculation about why they were doing it so late after four months. Have they have forgotten that she and her family visited Mangalore for the same in April? The Allahabad pics also Aishwarya and her family have no clue as it was a very private trip and they all flew on a chartered flight to the city so the media wouldn’t get wind of it.”

After Ash’s father passed away in March, the first city that Aishwarya had gone to was Mangalore in the first week of April to immerse her father’s ashes. The source adds, “From her community, the people immerse the ashes after a certain time and Aishwarya and her family had gone accordingly. Her father was originally from Uppinangady in Mangalore, hence the actress started from there. Her brother Aditya has immersed the ashes at the Sangam or confluence of the Netravati and Kumaradhara rivers. They had all visited her family temple called Sahasra Lingeshwara and conducted a pooja there.”