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'It would have been impossible for any other country to manage such a vast crowd or accommodate the visit of so many devotees with such remarkable arrangements,' says Navin Mendon.
Almost all of us have heard about the Kumbh Mela and about the Aghori Babas since we were kids. We had seen it on TV then; now, we see it on social media too.
I come from a religious family but I never thought I would visit the Maha Kumbh.
Then, one fine day in January, Sudesh, my friend from Bengaluru, called and asked, "I'm going to the Maha Kumbh. Would you like to join?"
It was to be just the two of us. We bought our tickets -- he from Bengaluru and me from Mumbai -- and they were expensive.
When a couple of our friends -- Kaushik and Naineet, who are from Mumbai -- heard about our plans, they decided to join us. Unfortunately, they were not able to get air tickets so these intrepid adventurers decided to drive to Prayagraj.
They had no bookings and were not sure whether they would have a place to stay. But that did not deter them.
Sudesh and I reached Prayagraj on the evening of February 21.
It was very crowded. I have never seen so many devotees in one place at the same time. As you can imagine, there was a lot of traffic as well.
It took us almost four hours to reach the ashram where we were to stay.
The tent designated to us was nice and cosy. We managed to get a tent for Naineet and Kaushik as well.
Night had drawn its curtain by the time they reached.
We decided we would go for a dip the next day and started asking the people there. Most suggested that it would be better to do so early in the morning.
The huge crowd made any movement by car impossible; we asked the people at the ashram if they could help us get in touch with some bikers. They helped us find four riders who could take us to one of the areas where we could hire a boat.
We wanted to take our dip in the middle of the Sangam and not at a ghat.
The bikers came to pick us up by 6.45 am. They took us to a certain point beyond which, as per the rules laid down by the cops, they could not go. We had to walk; the only problem was we didn't know where the boats were available.
As we made our way through the huge crowd -- Gosh! There were so many people -- we were constantly asking: Where can we find the boats? Where can we find the boats?
Finally, though, we did reach our destination and the negotiations began.
We wanted a private boat; they wanted to charge us Rs 20,000. After a few rounds of negotiations, they took us to the Sangam for Rs 18,000; it was very crowded there as well.
We entered the water and it was a beautiful experience. It made me feel divine. After I returned, I realised this was something I had really needed. I felt very, very good.
We collected holy water for our families and friends before we made our way back. Once, again, it was a long walk, this time under a hot sun.
For the longest time, we were not able to get a vehicle. We felt really grateful when we finally got a rickshaw whose driver agreed to take us towards the bridge which that would lead to where were staying. We literally had to beg the cops to allow us to cross it. At the other end, we called our bike drivers to pick us up.
We were so exhausted by the time we reached the ashram that we hit our beds. We hadn't walked so much -- it must have been anywhere from 12 to 14 km -- in a day in a long time.
Naineet and Kaushik drove back to Mumbai on February 22. Sudesh and I had planned to stay another night.
The next day, we decided to visit the Hanuman temple and the Nagvasuki temple. We hired the bikers again because the large crowds made cars an impossible option.
They dropped us after two kilometres -- they could not go ahead -- and said we had to walk another six kilometres.
There was such a huge crowd making their way to these temples that Sudesh and I gave up on the idea of going ahead.
On our way back, we stopped at the ghats and saw the beautiful Ganga aarti.
We went to bed after that because had an early morning flight and had asked our taxi driver to come much, much earlier; we didn't want to miss our flight because we had been stuck in traffic.
When we reached the airport, we were stunned. There was such a crowd there (see below). I guess many of our fellow travellers had the same idea about not reaching the airport late.
The Maha Kumbh was a beautiful experience.
There has been a lot of criticism saying the water of the holy rivers was dirty. That's not true. I bought the water with me; it's very clean.
Despite the immense logistical challenges, the authorities had made excellent arrangements. Prayagraj is not a very big city but the administration successfully managed such large crowds.
There were lost and found counters for people who had lost their possessions and even their family members. In order to enable this, and a better Kumbh experience, the authorities had made excellent use of AI; you can watch the Curly Tales video (external link) that explains it all.
I believe it would have been impossible for any other country to manage such a vast crowd or accommodate the visit of so many devotees with such remarkable arrangements in such a short span of time.
