A Road to Sangam

Meera Vohra

Maha Kumbh this time had a tagline of being once in 144 years. Apart from the unique planetary configuration, the biggest spiritual gathering was unprecedented in several ways.  Have covered several Kumbh and Ardh Kumbh in the past, but the Maha Kumbh this time not only caught everyone, including journalists like me, by surprise.  While coming from Varanasi I had my bags full of essentials for Kumbh Mela, with comfortable shoes topping the list, least did I know, the kind of use or rather overuse they would be put to.

Arriving at the Maha Kumbh

Having skipped the first snan of Makar Sankranti, I reached Prayagraj a few days after the snan’s hullaballoo had subsided. Venturing out on my first day for the Maha Kumbh Mela, I was greeted by a jam-packed road with no room for pedestrians. With no transportation available, I had no option but to walk to the media centre in the Kumbh Mela, which was more than 3 kilometres from my place. Dodging the traffic, I somehow reached the media centre to get the vehicle pass, intended to comfortably report from the mela area but destiny had other plans.

The four-wheeler, which had the coveted Maha Kumbh pass, remained parked on the porch of my home, not venturing out even once.  The deluge of humanity that descended the mela area made it difficult to navigate it in that area, moreover days near the major snans the area was declared a no-vehicle zone. This Maha Kumbh was the first when I majorly walked for the assignments; my comfy shoes came to my rescue.

My walk to the media centre, situated on Kali Sadak, which was the meeting point with my other team members,  was a pattern that ran common during the major part of the mela reporting. To reach the meeting point I had to walk on the road that connected the Mela area from the city and was a popular route for travellers who wanted to reach the Sangam area, the most sought-after place for the holy dip. While rubbing shoulders, literally, with the travellers, some of them who have walked more than 20 kilometres, as no proper public transport was available, one could see the kind of change the mela has undergone.

Sensing me as a localite, a young couple from Delhi checked with me whether they should leave their clothes behind after taking the holy dip. I was really amazed at how social media has penetrated our minds. I had seen a reel on social media with some random astro expert giving the details about do’s and don’ts while taking a dip at Sangam and had mentioned this.  In fact, the presence and impact of social media in this Maha Kumbh was tremendous.

A Kumbh of Influencers and Jugaad

It was a sort of Kumbh of social media influencers as well with our timeline being bombarded with reels related to the mega fair. Right from vital information about the traffic and crowd situation you could find it on social media, some of them also turned out to be sources of information when tragedy struck in the Maha Kumbh. With people posting pictures of their snan on their social media accounts, it gave a big-time FOMO (Fear of missing out) effect so the deluge of humanity was quite understandable.

In the absence of any proper transport available, the jugaad factor worked overtime.  Cycle trollies used to transport goods were painted overnight and used to ‘transport’ devotees unable to walk several kilometres to reach the Sangam area.  A lot of travellers, including foreigners, opted for this joy or rather jugaad ride. Then there were bikers to make the pilgrims reach their destination but at a cost.  A horde of bikers’ right from youngsters to middle-aged men hovered over the area intending to earn some ‘extra’ money, for some bikers extra had no capping to it. One of my acquaintances had the privilege of being driven around by a B.tech student so it was not just the baba who was an IIT-ian but also a biker with a tech background.

The impact of Kumbh-onomics  was also evident while traversing through a market area situated on the road leading to Sangam. An ordinary kirana or grocery store has been given a major makeover as it now has a confectionary counter to meet the hunger pangs of travellers. Similarly, a lot of make-shift tea, pakora and idli shops had come up. A mithai shop,  that till now had indulged the sweet tooth of its customers, has also started a samosa counter, keeping in mind the Maha Kumbh crowd that walked passed that area.  

pics by Amardeep