A common man’s Mahakumbh

We finished lunch at Mysore café,  bid goodbye to a friend who was staying back and set off to Prayagraj for the Mahakumbh. It was a good 11-hour journey. Soon we were whizzing on the Yamuna expressway and expected to reach by midnight even with a dinner break thrown in. There was not much traffic, just a few cars were on the road. But we had gotten used to this kind of traffic since the day we landed in Delhi. Unlike BLR with its choked two-lane roads, Delhi had been a revelation. Everywhere we went we saw 6/8 lanes with sparse traffic on them. Travelling 10/12 kms had been a breeze.

Dhabas and petrol bunks dotted the landscape. Smoke trailing in the sky caught my eye every now and then and I tried tracing it.  Soon I caught sight of the source, a tall brick tower was belching it. Then one tower came close to the Highway, bricks were stacked all around it. It was a brick making unit. Those tall brick chimneys followed us for a long time. We were traveling through brick country. I was surprised. Mud bricks were making a comeback. Interesting.  I thought houses were built using ready-made cement bricks nowadays.

The Car needed a refill, and we stopped at a CNG center. A sugarcane vendor stood temptingly at its exit, and we made a beeline for it. It was an open-geared machine, and the sugarcane was so thin. Its diameter was perhaps just an inch. How sweet could the juice be, I wondered! A lady joined us, she wanted the juice too. She was returning from the Mahakumbh. She was delighted at having taken the holy dip. She was speaking in fluent and stylish English; I was taken aback. For some reason I hadn’t expected to hear English from her. The juice had been sweet, btw.

Slowly the Sun set. Around 10 PM we stopped at Dhaba for dinner. It was a makeshift dabha. The Roti and Dal were ok but were served on thin Styrofoam plates. The plates were so thin, they broke with a crackling sound when held. I didn’t like it. The driver mentioned how makeshift Dhabas had sprung up all along the route and were raking in the moolah just like that Sugarcane vendor. UP Govt was making crores from the Mahakumbh and money was trickling down the pyramid.

We were going directly to the Sangam for a dip and wanted to change into clothes which would dry quickly. We looked around and found a room, its door ajar.  It was full of beds but was empty.  Each one changed with the other three standing guard outside.  We paid the bill and set off.

Soon there was silence behind me as everyone dozed off. I was neither bored nor sleepy. I kept looking outside, reading the boards of the shops to see where we were and nameplates of the vehicles ahead to see from where they came. Many of them were from Rajasthan. All of them were going to the Kumbh I thought. For that matter all the vehicles on that expressway were going to the Kumbh going by the luggage they were carrying. Small vehicles which transport Cows/ animals were now transporting humans, some standing, some sitting. All roads led to the Mahakumbh.

That made me recall how we had made a late decision to squeeze in a visit to the Kumbh during the trip. On the eve of our trip my sil suggested we go to Kumbh having gone all the way to Delhi. This had set off a flurry of discussions which concluded with a talk with the driver at 7:00 PM that night. Next morning we were in Delhi and the next afternoon we were off to Mahakumbh. Somewhere the fever that had engulfed most Hindus had infected us too. So also the arguments, it happens once in 144 years, none of us will be around for the next one and the feeling of missing out had buttressed the suggestion.  

Small talk between the driver and me had died long ago.  It was pitch dark outside except for the vehicle lights and streetlights. I saw a small temple rising from the darkness far away. I had been trying to take a picture of an ordinary temple since evening. Ordinary temples mimic the style of that region, and they intrigue me. We had passed so many temples, but I had not been able to take a picture. I trained my camera at the approaching one and went click, click, click. I now see I have got very beautiful pictures.  It is a small temple radiating white light through its open but pillared ground floor. It stands solitary, away from everything and looks magical. It was 1:30 Am and we were near Prayagraj, the venue of the Mahakumbh.

We were sixty kms away when road diversions began. Prayagraj was sinking under the deluge of devotees, and the local bodies were making new plans every day to keep their city going.  Police and barricades directed us in new directions every few kilometers. Per the information we had, vehicles as in Cars went up to the riverbank in Arail ghat. Then we were supposed to take a boat to the Triveni Sangam for the holy dip. Every time we asked for directions the Police sent us away from the barricades. The density of vehicles had increased, and we were crawling.

All the boards were saying Sangam, and we went along. I had stopped asking for Arail ghat some time ago while the driver continued to seek directions for Sangam. We joined the end of a huge traffic jam and stopped. We could see buses too were on that lane. Going by the people outside their vehicles it felt they had stopped sometime ago.  Bikes with pillion riders weaved their way through the mess. We started talking to the people outside and got some very bleak news. One guy categorically said we would be lucky if we reached the parking lot the next day. Another remarked you should have got some men with you even as he peeped inside the car. The driver panicked at this, shut all the doors and moved forward a little muttering we should not have spoken to him at all.

A little later the vehicles began to move and in 15 minutes we were in the Parking lot.  A couple of bikers were hovering around, and we stuck a deal with them. We didn’t want a “lost in Kumbh mela” story and  opted for two people to ride with one driver to the Sangam.

The streets were very well lit, policemen stood guard at some points but there were also stretches where the road was empty except for our bikes. The circles had installations in them, one had the Kalash (Kumbh), another a Shankh, and yet another a Chakra. Strings of colored lights adorned the trees and poles like creepers.  It was a rough ride, and we reached yet another Parking lot. The drivers dropped us here. They promised to pick us up when we called them.

There was no way you could lose your way to the Sangam I thought looking at the crowd. We joined them and started walking. Lights dazzled everywhere and hoardings of Yogi Adityanath and Modi and Mahakumbh were everywhere. We stopped for a couple of pictures. A board advertised a Dekho of the new temple in Ayodhya. The crowd got bigger and suddenly numerous lights dazzled as far as the eye could see. We had reached the main area where the ghats began and far off was the Tent city.

Our first stop was the restroom.  I had seen these mobile restrooms on my Amarnath Yatra too. We had not given up on the Arail ghat quest and went to the ghats in search of it.  A couple was bathing in a ghat and a boatsman nearby was picking up the flotsam from the river. No other boat was in sight, so couldn’t be Arail ghat. We walked up to policeman after policeman until one of them remarked you are very far from it. He suggested we have a dip in the Triveni Sangam ghat. For some reason I asked him if that was where the Sangam happened, and he nodded. Feels foolish now. I had gone to the Triveni Sangam a few years ago and it is away from the banks and not near any ghat.

At this point we gave up our search for Arail ghat and headed towards the Triveni Sangam ghat. Now all roads led to this ghat and a massive crowd was converging towards it. People were everywhere and walking through them was a task. Have a quick dip and walk away from the bank intoned a loudspeaker in a loop. This fell on deaf ears. People were changing near the banks, and many had left behind their clothes. Clothes were being discarded everywhere.  Families formed tight groups, bathed and changed and left behind their wet clothes. While two of us stood guard holding the luggage with feet on the footwear, the other two made their way to the river.

We slid down the embankment made of sandbags and eased into the river. The water came up to my knees. I pinched my nose and tried to dunk my head into the water. I panicked as my face hit the water first and came up immediately. I tried this thrice holding onto a friend but couldn’t get my whole head under the water. My friend did a better job and went down better.  Another friend did too. I entered the river a second time but refused to go into deeper water. Fifteen feet away barricades had been erected, and some men had gone near them.  

Holy dip done, we picked up our bags and started walking through the dense crowd, holding hands all the while.  A few minutes later we saw changing rooms and a couple of us changed. Here too people had discarded their wet clothes and the ground around it was wet. We stopped for some soggy noodles for 100 rupees a serving. It was overcooked and full of garlic. We threw it away after a few spoons and joined the crowd going towards the Parking lot.

A board said “way to Hanuman temple”, we didn’t even stop to read it completely. We continued our walk. As far as the eye could see we saw people. Anyone seen the migration of Wildebeest on NatGeo? We were in the midst of one such migration but of humans. Have you seen people getting into a Mumbai local train during rush hour? We were being carried along similarly.  Slowly but steadily, we were taken to the parking lot. Our drivers arrived within minutes of our call, and we hopped on to the bikes.  The last few kilometers were through dirt tracks, small stones were everywhere. The ride was bumpy.

We had left in darkness, but the Sun had risen as we approached the Parking.  A devotee on a bike beside me raised his hands in obeisance to a sliver of Ganga flowing nearby. I felt his "maiyya" engulf me, his devotion resonated within me. I now realized where I was and what I had just experienced. Jai Gangey!

Yes, I had marked my attendance in the Mahakumbh. It was very different from the sanitized pictures I had seen of people in neatly laid out cottages. We had seen no Naga Sadhus, we had not even seen a cottage. It was different from what we thought we would be doing, going to Arail ghat and taking a boat to the Sangam. Our experience was what the hoi polloi were experiencing. The common man took whatever transportation he could afford to reach Prayagraj. He then trudged kilometers on end, some barefooted, some with staff in hand to the Ghats. We had seen women walking barefooted through dirt tracks and on gravel. All for a holy dip in Triveni Sangam ghat, not the Sangam.  Some like us brought back the water from the ghat, some returned empty handed like me.

But the mission had been accomplished. We had taken a dip in Ganga during the Mahakumbh!

We drove back to Vrindavan stopping just twice, once for breakfast and once for lunch. On the way back we had recited the first three chapters of Bhagavat Gita. A little after 8 Pm we had checked into our Airbnb in Vrindavan. The friend who had stayed behind had joined us. We had a quick shower followed by dinner and hit the bed. Tomorrow was another day!

 

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