Human Sea at the bank of a River
It was 13th Feb 2013. I was just about to leave
my office. My colleagues were coming to my seat and were saying “Take Care” and
“Safe Journey” as I was going for “Shahi Snan” (Royal Bath) at Kumbh mela next
morning. Their worried eyes scared me little but I was not perturbed enough to
change my plan. Their concern was genuine as around 40 pilgrims died at
Allahabad railway station just two days back in one of the major Royal Bath. I
reached my home after an exhausting day but the upbeat mood of my parents who
had come to Delhi from Bihar for the trip, boosted my morale by many folds.
We discussed our plan for the trip and went to bed as we had
to catch the train early morning. After
9 hours of journey, we reached Allahabad junction. Allahabad junction is unique in its capacity. All platforms are separately linked. You have to change many cross sections of stairs to reach one platform from another. It might have been designed keeping in mind the massive crowd that converges at the time of Kumbh. We thought it would be difficult to get
a room in hotel but our fear was baseless. There was no dearth of hotels though
the charges of rooms were increased without showing any mercy to pilgrims. We
managed to get a room in a hotel at reasonable price. After having relaxed in hotel for few hours,
we went for a stroll to see the cacophony of Allahabad. Due to kumbh mela,
market was buzzing with activities related to the mela. Crowd was everywhere
from small tea shop to restaurants, from horse driven cart to auto rickshaws.
We went to a small samosa shop as there was a queue to get samosas. We thought
it must be selling good quality samosa, looking at the size of crowd. And
fortunately it did not disappoint us. The price was half as compared to samosa
selling in Delhi and the quality was superb.
After tea and samosa, my father had his favourite ‘ maghi’ (
type of betel leaves) paan. Then we roamed
there for few more hours, enquired about routes and medium of transportation to
Kumbh Mela. After having dinner in our hotel room, discussion started as who
would be the first person to wake up in the morning. Father and I were on one
side and ma was chosen to be the first one. After initial hesitation, she
agreed finally as waking early was her daily routine. Ma woke up around 4 a.m.
She tried her best to wake us but finally we woke up around 5 am. After we got
ready for the’ D’ day we were waiting for, we came out of hotel. What we saw
was hordes and hordes of people going in one direction even so early in the
morning. “We are late” said my father.
We joined the crowd. We took a cycle rickshaw and reached to the spot where
vehicles of ‘common man’ were not allowed to go further. Different streams of crowd comprising
different sections of people were converging into a single stream. Fathers were carrying their young broods.
Elderly women had tied up their shawls so that they did not get away from each
other. Young people were holding hands of their mothers, grandmothers. But
there was high level of energy everywhere. Everyone was moving fast to be the
first to reach there and wanted to be the first to take a dip in the river. We
were also moving with fervor and were trying to match the crowd in its pace.
Then we reached a long bridge. What we saw below the bridge was a layer of fog
and thousands of colored tent houses encircled with layers of mist. Bhajans and
sermons of spiritual gurus were emanating from loud speakers mounted over long
bamboos. After walking for almost 7 km,
we entered into the mela premise. We took break in a small makeshift tea shop.
Till papa and I were having tea, ma was bargaining with a shopkeeper over the
price of white plastic container used to fill water. Finally she won the battle
and handed over the container to me to fill water of Ganga. It is a tradition
in sanatan dharma to take back water of Ganga to one’s house to purify anything
in universe you can imagine. The water of Ganga is also used in Pujas performed
in houses. We moved around 500 meters further to see a naga akhara, a camp of
Naga Sadhus. Lives of Sadhus, saints always ignite curiosity in my heart. I
moved inside the akhara but was little scared as nagas are known for their
mercurial behavior. But what I saw was ultimate divine experience. There was a
saint sitting on the ground holding his hands towards a person whose body had
turned blue, hair locks were let loose and was wearing not a single string of
cloth. Yes, he was the naga sadhu, the cynosure of Kumbh Mela. He had just come
after having the earliest dip in sangam. My hands folded and head bowed automatically
to see the replica of lord Shiva. I greeted him and said ‘pranam baba’. His
eyes almost crimson red, opened and I shuddered. But then he raised his hand
and gave his blessing. Blessed I was. I narrated this incident to my ma who
reached later to that akhara. She said,” Why did you not take his photo?” “I
could not dare”, I said. That was nothing but the truth.
We moved ahead. There were some people who were returning
after the bath and some were coming for the bath but the rush of human flow was
continuous. There were some male
devotees who were getting their head shaved; some women too were also getting
their hair locks trimmed. It is also a tradition to donate your hair to river
Ganga. The government had tried its best to provide basic amenities to pilgrims
coming for the holy dip. Electricity and water supply was provided to every
nook and corner. Makeshift bridges and roads were made. Policemen on horses
were guarding the area. But there was still area of improvement especially in
the field of sanitation. When we reached the bank of river, it was full. There
was no space even to keep our feet. Then we hired a boat to reach the Sangam,
confluence of river Ganga and Yamuna. Boatman was charging more than five times
what he normally charges. Pilgrims had no choice but to give up to their demand
in the absence of any regularized fares. We reached Sangam. Boatman tied his boat to the permanent wooden
pillars bored into the water. To our utter surprises, level of water was too
low. It was hardly touching my knees. The water of Ganga and Yamuna could be
easily demarcated by the color of dark Yamuna. Unfazed by level and color of
water, we took as many dips as we could have at Sangam as such event occurred
once in 12 years. After the shahi snan, we came back to the bank.
We were relieved after the bath. We felt as if all our sins
were washed away from our heads. On the
bank, it is tradition to hold the tail of colt and donate some rice, money. It
is believed that after death this colt would take across the mythical flooded
river ‘Vaitarni’. After the bath, we had
some snacks at street vendor’s stall. My parents were tired and wanted to take
rest. We entered into a sadhu camp. We were greeted with warm smile and taken
into a tent made of sacks and bundles of hay were laid on ground in the tent.
We made ourselves comfortable. Tea and fried peas were offered to us. We had a
nap for an hour. Then we went for bhandara (lunch) made in camp only. I saw
sadhus rolling dough, frying puri, cooking curry and also serving food to each
and every one who had come to camp. I also got opportunity to server food and I
was ecstatic to do that. After the sumptuous lunch, we got opportunity to meet
mahant (main sadhu) of the camp. Glow on his face adorned by an innocent smile,
he asked us about our experience in kumbh. As always, I was ready with my
questions related to life of sadhu and social life. He answered them with
utmost maturity. Or better say he sprinkled droplets of knowledge from his vast
reservoir. As the mahant ji had to
attend other devotees also, we paid obeisance and retired from the camp. With
all these new experiences, we came out of mela premise. Suddenly it started
raining. With much difficulty, we got a horse cart. It was for the first time,
I was sitting on a horse cart. It was a very stable mode of transportation. I
really loved to sit on that. Finally we reached our hotel. We were happy to
visit Kumbh and relieved too as we were safe. I pray to go there again after 12
years.
